God is Crazy About You

A pastor of mine often said: “God is crazy about you. If God had a fridge, your picture would be on it.” God loves me so much that Jesus died for me personally:

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20 NIV).

He formed me in my mother’s womb … yes, even me – an unplanned and unwanted pregnancy:

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” (Psalm 139:13 NIV).

He will never leave me or forsake me:

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 13:6 NIV)

Prefer to watch? Here’s the 60-second version:

Why do some of us live like God barely tolerates us? That He would rather smite us mightily but instead begrudgingly forbears because His mercy convinces Him? This sounds ridiculous, but unfortunately too many of us feel this way because we don’t understand our wonderful Savior.

We act like God only loves us:

• When we’re worthy of His love
• When we give something back to Him
• When we serve Him
• When we obey Him
• When we’re following His rules to the letter

What did the thief on the cross offer Jesus? Faith. Only faith.

We often get this backward. God’s love for us is unconditional. We show our love to God by obeying Him.

“If you love me, keep my commands.” (John 14:15 NIV)

We don’t earn His love by obeying Him, we show our love. I understand this difference but often don’t appreciate it properly.

God’s love meets us where we are:

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 NIV)

When we realize this, and grasp that God loves us because of who He is (not who we are or what we’ve done), we can appreciate Him more. We can appreciate His grace, mercy, and love. We can be eager to spend time with Him. We can be quick to confess, keeping a short account.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 NIV)

And when we realize His love for us, let’s not forget to let our faces reflect that! Our actions and body language should shine God’s love to a world that desperately needs Him.

Cory Asbury’s Reckless Love song captures this concept very well:

Such overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love deserves our gratitude, our worship, our lives. One way to structure our worship is to create a list of how amazing God is. I think this concept came from one of Pastor Rob Prince’s sermons too. Remember the “your mama’s so ugly …” and the “you’re so fat …” jokes? People would trade ugly or fat jokes back and forth until someone ran out of ideas. The result would often be hilarious. Instead of humor (and maybe some hurt feelings), let’s try a different version. A “you’re so amazing …” list. Let’s target worshiping God for His love and developing an appreciation of that attribute. How far can you go with “God, you love me/us so much …”? Try it in your next worship time & write it down. Get examples from scripture, from your own experience, and from other people you know or have read about. Keep the list handy and refer to it whenever you feel down.

I’ll start:

God, you love me SO MUCH that you sent Jesus to live a perfect life, die on a cross, rise again, and ascend to heaven. 

“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 NIV)

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