Greg Laurie Harvest Daily Devotional

Get guidance on Bible study from C.S. Lewis - Free Course!
<< Greg Laurie Daily Devotions

Greg Laurie Daily Devotion - June 6, 2007

 

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Fatherly Love

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!

—1 John 3:1

What do you think God’s love is? Do you envision a permissive love that allows you to do whatever you want to? That isn’t what God’s love is. You see, God loves you enough to put restrictions in your life. He loves you enough to say, “Do this. It will help you. And don’t do this. It’s bad for you.”

Suppose a child asks his mother, “Mommy, can I play in the street?” Of course she would say, “No, you may not. I love you and don’t want you to be in a place where you would be endangered. One day, you will realize that I did this not from a lack of love, but because I do love you.”

It’s the same with us. When God says no to us, it is not that He doesn’t love us. It’s just the opposite. It’s because He loves us.

In the Garden of Eden, God told Adam, “ ‘Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die’ ” (Genesis 2:16–17). So the devil tempted Eve: “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1). Essentially he was saying, “If God really loved you, then He would let you do whatever you want.” The truth was that because God loved Adam and Eve, He did not want them to sin. Yet they disobeyed God and fell into sin.

Those limits that you find in the pages of the Bible are there for your own good. God has put a fence around you, so to speak. But it is not to keep you confined—it is to keep you safe from the many dangers in this world. 


For more relevant and biblical teaching from Pastor Greg Laurie, go to  www.harvest.org.

Copyright © 2007 by Harvest Ministries.  All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version.  Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.  Bible text from the New King James Version is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214-1000.

 



More Greg Laurie Daily Devotions Articles