How Great Is the Father’s Love

by | Jun 4, 1999 | God's Love, Sacrifice

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” – 1 John 3:1

Norman Vincent Peale began his pastorate at Marble Collegiate Church in Brooklyn, New York in 1932. In the early days of his ministry there, he began visiting some families and he walked by one particular door. In was Christmas Eve and he noticed that on the door were the red ribbon of Christmas and a black wreath of mourning. While the people who lived there were not parishioners of his, he decided he would call on the family. So he knocked on the door, and the father of the family came to the door. Dr. Peale introduced himself and was invited in. He sought to give condolences to the family, and he saw in the sitting room a small casket where a 6-year-old girl was lying in state. Dr. Peale expressed his sympathy to the father, and this father said, “Dr. Peale, it’s going to be all right, for she is with God, you know.” While they were talking, Dr. Peale could hear the mother of the family reading the Bible to two little boys of the family, and he heard her reading these words: “Because I live, you shall live also.”

Christ’s love is for keeps. Whatever comes our way, we are loved by our Heavenly Father. Today in prayer, give thanks to Jesus for His love for you.

“The great spiritual task facing me is to so fully trust that I belong to God that I can be free in the world–free to speak even when my words are not received; free to act even when my actions are criticized, ridiculed, or considered useless; free also to receive love from people and to be grateful for all the signs of God’s presence in the world. I am convinced that I will truly be able to love the world when I fully believe that I am loved far beyond its boundaries.” – Henri J. M. Nouwen

God’s Word: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” – John 3:16

By Peter Kennedy, Copyright 2002, Devotional E-Mail DEVOTIONS IN THE LETTERS OF JOHN pkennedy@devotional.com

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How Great Is the Father’s Love

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