How God Loves Us

John 16:23 says: "And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you."

Notice the word whatsoever. Through it, we get a glimpse of the magnanimous character of the Heavenly Father. Whatsoever covers everything. It touches every base, fills up every bag, with no limits.

“Whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you." In other words, God will give you what you ask for if you ask in Jesus’ name. Why will God do that? Will He do it solely because we ask in Jesus’ name? In John 16:27, Jesus tells us why: "for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God."

I do not know if you really appreciate what Jesus is saying here. He said the reason God will give you what you ask is that He loves you. The Father loves you.

We know Jesus loves us. He told His disciples in John 15:13-14, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.” He then laid His life down for them and for us. We know that is love because when you give your life for someone that is the ultimate demonstration of that love. When you give your life, you do not have anything else to give.

You need to recognize that the Father loves you, then begin to love yourself, and think about yourself like the Father thinks about you. One reason many people have a problem accepting that God loves them is that they do not love themselves. But if the Heavenly Father thinks you are worth loving, then you should think you are worth loving, as well.

Some people do not understand that concept. They think it is idolatry when you love yourself, but it is not. You have to love yourself. If you do not think it is worth it to love yourself, what makes you think it is worth it for God to love you? Have you ever thought of that? There must be something in you that is worth loving for the Heavenly Father to love you.

Also, if you do not love yourself, you do not have the capacity to love anyone else. If you do not love other people, you are effectively out of the will of God. Loving one another is a commandment of God, as Jesus points out in Mark 12:28-31: "Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He [Jesus] had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?" Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is, 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.'And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: 'You shalt love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater then these."

If you do not love yourself, how are you going to love me? You have not even started in the game yet, and you have problems, if you do not love yourself. You have to get a vision of your own self-worth, in the face of Almighty God. You have to see yourself as someone important.

So many churches have taught us that we were nothing. The ministers in those churches thought they were keeping us humble, but they were downgrading us by telling us how no-good we were, that we were all just sinners saved by grace. But we must be worth something. If we were not worth something, God would not have paid the price that He did to save and redeem us.

You do not spend a million dollars on a piece of property that is no good, and God spent more than a million dollars on us. He spent the life of His Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us, so we must have some value. Therefore, you need to get a vision of your own self-worth in the sight of God—not to think more highly than you ought to think, as Paul states in Romans 12:3, but to see yourself as God sees you, as an object of love.  

Begin to love yourself as the Father loves you, not to worship or idolize yourself, but because you ought to love and appreciate yourself, just as your heavenly Father loves and appreciates you.

Scripture Of The Day: "For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you." - Romans 12:3 (NIV)