What is the True Measure of God’s Love?

Written by Helen Lescheid

Does God love you? Would you like to talk to someone about that?

Join us for our Daily Devotional Chat today in our Women’s Chatroom at 10:30am EDT.

“I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3:18,19).

Why do we have such a hard time accepting God’s love? We often use the wrong measure in evaluating God’s love. We ask, “If God really loves me, then why is this happening to me?”

A young girl wasn’t sure if her boyfriend really loved her. She picked a daisy and began picking off the petals, chanting, “He loves me…he loves me not.” Silly, isn’t it?

Wayne Jacobsen, in his wonderful book, He Loves Me!, writes “How we play the daisy petal game with God”. (1)

I got a raise. He loves me
My investments took a terrible hit. He loves me not
Something for which I prayed actually happened. He loves me.
My car needs a new transmission. He loves me not.
The medical tests were negative. He loves me.
The doctor says there is no cure. He loves me not.

We cannot measure God’s love using our circumstances. It’s the wrong measure. When you are baking a cake you use measuring cups and measuring spoons, right? What would happen if you decided to use a ruler instead?

If circumstances are the wrong measure of God’s love, what is the right measure?

The Cross of Jesus Christ

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1John 4:9,10).

Dear God, thank you, that You are always acting in love towards me.

Question: How can you remind yourself that God loves you the same on bad days as on good days?

About the Author Helen Grace Lescheid

Daily audio podcast: A second daily devotional, You Cannot Outgive God, today on the Men’s Devotional Blog

Tags: boyfriend, cure, daisy, He Loves Me, Helen Grace Lescheid, investments, love, medical tests, negative, Wayne Jacobsen

6 Responses to “What is the True Measure of God’s Love?”

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kanj says:

May 10, 2009 at 1:17 pm

Helen, thank you for this devotional. I remind myself of the ‘worst’ days and remember how I’ve come to the good days. When the bad/worst days come (and they have) I know that the Lord is with me.
”He who trusts in the LORD, mercy shall surround him.”-Psalm 32:10
sharon b says:

May 6, 2009 at 1:22 pm

i know i could not have made it through all of the bad days with out Him. thats how i know He loves me
Rosie says:

May 4, 2009 at 10:37 am

I would like to make one more further comment…
My house burned down to the very ground this last January 13, 2009. The Lord woke me up at 1:30 in the morning and my husband and I got out with only the pajamas on our back within only seven minutes of our lives or we would have burned with the fire. Yes, it was a total devastation. Never the less, my husband and I felt an incredible presence of God’s love through everything. And, we had this incredible peace (we definitely cried too) but for some reason God gave us His special joy and we new that everything was going to be alright. We continued to worship Him with all our hearts in the congregation (and this was not forced joy) we had a real sense of God’s provisional presence and love. In addition, I had been battling a life threatening illness. BUT GOD….supplies all our needs more abundantly than we could EVER have imagined. Three different congregations helped us with gifts and finances. Strangers…I’m not kidding…strangers just handed us money and gave us gifts. The house we are in now was the only house we looked at.We both knew in our hearts it was the one from the Lord, though 10 others had come before wanting the house, the owner turned them away, and when he saw us he said he knew we were the ones. The Lord returned everything even more and better than what we had had. But the greatest blessing was experiencing HIS awesome love in the midst of our devastating circumstances. We know with all hearts who HE is and we love Him so dearly. “Thank you LORD, You are an incredible friend and LORD of all…we love You.”
Rosie says:

May 4, 2009 at 8:17 am

My reflection on this devotion and posed question:
It’s much more than just realizing that He gave His life as a sacrifice, but rather why the sacrifice? Yes, because this is the ultimate expression of His love. Understanding where God is in a circumstance begins with really understanding that He IS love. It’s having an understanding of His very nature; of understanding His personal attributes and character which comes through reading the scripture and through an intimate ongoing relationship with the LORD. By seeking Him with all your heart to know Him, to understand Him, we learn that He truly loves us, and that circumstances are just waves in the sea that Jesus tells us not to look. Rather Jesus tells us to keep our eyes fixed on Him.
In Matthew 5:45 in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, He teaches on the principles of how to love. He teaches that we are to love our enemy if we are to be called children of God….sometimes evil things can happen…but that doesn’t mean that comes from God. Jesus continues to tell us that “the rain falls on the just and unjust”.
In this world we will have tribulation and we will experience seasons that change but God’s love an nature never changes….this is a reminding comfort as I asses my circumstances….yes, HE has OVERCOME the world, yes, on the tree of sacrifice as earlier expressed, because that is the true expression of His very nature. God is not evil; He in fact is GOOD. GOD IS LOVE… always has been and always will be.
Jenny says:

May 4, 2009 at 7:09 am

Thanks Karen for sharing this. It is a great addition to the devotional today. :)
Kara says:

May 4, 2009 at 4:36 am

We have been talking a lot in our womens group at church about how life is a puzzle and our lives are just different parts of that puzzle. They all fit together for God’s ultimate plan. He loves each one of us and wants us to reach others. If we did not sometimes have to go through the storms in this life, how would we reach those that have not yet come to the understanding of God’s love. Just as in the when we are maybe diagnosed with that incurable disease, there might be someone in that doctors office that needs a glimpse of hope and you are that hope and the love you have for your Savior. This life throws many things our way but God uses them for his good and now you are the light that that person neeeded to find a wonderful Savior. Just remember that you are a piece of God’s puzzle.