“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”—Romans 8:37-39

No matter your current or past circumstances, we all strive to be loved.

There is an innate longing within each of us to be loved by somebody, anybody. This desire is at the heart of almost every decision, thought, perspective, and action we make. God formed within us an overwhelming need for love because He desires to be the One who satisfies that longing. God doesn’t try to hide His love for us. He showed off His love for us through His Son, and He continues to show off His love for us with His involvement in our everyday lives.

God used His Son to demonstrate His love for you 2,000 years ago, and now He uses His children to show His love to others. It can be easy in challenging times to be ruled by our flesh instead of the Spirit inside of us. The Spirit inside of us empowers us to be loving with our words and our actions. The flesh empowers us to withhold love with our words and our actions.

If you are like you me, you’ve had moments this week when you were ruled by the Spirit and moments when you have been ruled by the flesh. It is because of God’s love that He demonstrated through Jesus that you are not defeated because of your mistakes. God’s love remains steadfast even when you aren’t, and He offers you the grace to receive His love anew and to start fresh, demonstrating His love to others.

Romans 5:8 says, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

God demonstrated his love for us on the cross. But the cross also serves as a reminder that God will, now and forever, continually pour out his love. Not only did he commit a powerful act of love then, but he also makes his love available to us now.

*this is the first devotional of a Fruit of the Spirit study I’m hosting with Willowbrook Women. If you are interested in getting involved in this study, you can find more information at willowbrookwomen.org