March 2: “Hope of Love” by Dr. Brent Gentzel

Romans 8:31-35, “What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since He did not spare even His own Son but gave Him up for us all, won’t He also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for His own? No one—for God Himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and He is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love?”

I once read about a young man who signed all his emails, “I’m just me and that’s good enough.” In his closing declaration, he was really confessing what we all might. Everyone longs to be “good enough for someone else.”

A billion selfies posted online every day declare the same truth. We all want to be loved.

We spend much of our lives trying to convince ourselves that we are smart enough, beautiful or hand- some enough, and good enough to deserve the love of others.

When others fail to love us, rejection often leads us to look for love in all the wrong places, and our failure to find something meaningful is the stuff of a thousand country songs. It shouldn’t surprise us to learn that much of the depression and despair of our age grows from loneliness and disappointment with our efforts at finding love.

Our culture may trivialize love, but the mass shooters seem to have one thing in common: they are lon- ers. They don’t feel like anyone loves them.

Our longing for love points to something important.

In a world where the love of people often fails, the love we seek is the sure and certain love of God.

It matters a great deal to me...it gives me incredible courage and hope to know that God, who loves me deeply today, is going to love me deeply tomorrow and a thousand years from now. Nothing can sepa- rate me from His love. Nothing will cause Him to love me less. Nothing.

Embracing God’s love is the secret to loving others well. When we know we are loved, we can find the strength to endure the failures of others to love us, and love them still.

Lord, bless me today in all my efforts to love others, and help me to enjoy every effort that others around me may make to love me, but through all the ups and downs of the relationships in my life, help me to remember that Your love is the only perfect love I will ever know, and that it is the one great love that I most need. Amen.