Proof of God’s Love - Greg Laurie Devotion - April 23, 2024
Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Proof of God’s Love
But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8 NLT)
I’ve noticed that people like to think of their animals as human. They’ll put clothes on their dogs, for example, but dogs don’t like clothes. Years ago, I bought a Harley-Davidson hat for my dog, which I thought was funny. But he hated it. And he couldn’t wait to get it off.
We can put clothes on dogs, but it won’t turn them into humans. A dog is still a dog.
In the same way, we might try to change our environment or the way we look, but it won’t change who we are. We’ll still be the same on the inside.
When a Pharisee named Nicodemus came to Jesus with some questions, Jesus told him, “Don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again’ ” (John 3:7 NLT).
To help Nicodemus understand, Jesus went on to say, “The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit” (verse 8 NLT).
Jesus was saying, “It is just like the wind. You don’t see the wind coming or where it is going, but you see its effects. You can tell when it is going to rain. Look at the dark clouds. You can see the rain. But you can’t see the wind. You can only see the effects of it.”
In the same way, we can’t see God. But to say there is no God because we can’t see Him is like saying we don’t believe in electricity because we can’t see it. Although we can’t see God, we can see His effect. We can see the impact He has made in people’s lives.
Jesus got more specific in His conversation with Nicodemus and laid out the essential gospel message. He also gave us a verse that every Christian should commit to memory: “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 NLT).
This refutes the concept of God as a cosmic killjoy or an angry judge who is ready to destroy humanity. Rather, Jesus began by saying, “For this is how God loved the world.” God loves everyone, despite what they’ve done. And He showed His love to us in a tangible way.
The apostle Paul wrote, “But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8 NLT).
But let’s also notice the other part of John 3:16: “So that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (NLT). What does it mean to believe? It doesn’t mean to intellectually accept something.
Sometimes we think that believing something means acknowledging it is true. However, that is not believing in the biblical sense. The word “believe” means to put your complete faith in something.
God is saying, “Trust Me with your life.” That is what it means to believe.
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