I Can’t Understand Why God Would Love Me

Excerpt taken from Awake in the Dawn: Living the Lord’s Prayer by Craig Smith.

Day 3
No Deeper Love

For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

THOUGHT

Blaise Pascal was born in Clermont-Ferrand, France in June 1623. He was blessed with a remarkable mind. He was an inventor, mathematician, physicist, and theological writer. His mother died while he was a toddler, and he was raised by his father until his father was seriously injured in an accident that limited his abilities to care for his family. The accident resulted in the family being led to Christ by a group of Jansenists (a sect of Catholics who believed in predestination and divine grace) who were helping the family while the father was sick. This conversion influenced Blaise Pascal to become a devoutly religious person.

Though Pascal is most remembered for his contributions to mathematics, a science grounded in logic and reason, one quote from his writings lends insight to the inexplicable depth of God’s love for humanity, a love that defies the confines of reason and led Jesus Christ to the most extravagant act of sacrifice, selflessness, and provision for the human soul: “Love has reasons which reason cannot understand.” As impossible as it is to comprehend God, it is equally impossible to understand the unlimited dimensions of his love. Truly God is the best example of love, but that is still a deficient statement. He is not only the essence of love, but love in purest form as he is love’s sole source, for God is love (1 John 4:8). His every act is motivated by love because he is love. He does not separate, set aside, or diminish the quality and quantity of his love at any time or in any of his decisions or acts. God and genuine love are one and the same. God is love and love is God.

PRAYER

Father, I do not understand the depth of your love and certainly do not deserve it. I can only be a humble and grateful recipient of this unfathomable provision. Thank you, Lord, for loving me and saving me, and may I wisely seek the paths of your kingdom this day and each of the remaining days of my life. Amen.

 

Give us today the food we need.

About the  Awake in the Dawn devotional.

Believing Jesus responded to the disciples’ request for instruction on prayer with His very best advice, Pastor Craig receives (and shares) the Lord’s prayer pattern as a treasured gift. Awake in the Dawn: Living the Lord’s Prayer helps readers enjoy the spiritual adventure of living out the Lord’s Prayer – just as Pastor Craig has been doing for the past 50 years.

The devotional is designed to lead readers through the pattern of the  Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) on a weekly basis, modeling Jesus’ own prayer relationship with the Heavenly Father. Each week, the prayer format follows the divine plan:

1. Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
2. May your kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
3. Give us today the food we need.
4. Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
5. Don’t let us yield to temptation.
6. But rescue us from the evil one.
7. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever.

Pastor Craig shares more here.

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Order your copy of Awake in the Dawn: Living the Lord’s Prayer by Craig Smith.