Day 25: Who is the True Father-God of Genuine Love?

Matthew 6:9
“Therefore, you should pray like this: 
Our Father in heaven, Your name be honored as holy.

One of the most incredible truths revealed in the Bible is that God wants us to know Him as our Heavenly Father! God is our “father” because we all have our ultimate origin in Him (see Ephesians 3:14-15). But even more than this, He wants us to know Him and experience Him as a compassionate, loving Heavenly Father who desires to find us, heal us, restore us and transform us into people who think and act as His beloved children.

Genuine Love is the term we use to describe that type or quality of love that Father-God wants us to experience. This love is neither “Candy” nor “Smack” like we discussed yesterday. Genuine Love is not driven by bribe, nor is it driven by fear. It is an unselfish love that focuses on the one being loved and puts the loved one’s needs and best interest above any self-interest and self-fulfillment. 

Jesus tells us, “No one has greater love than this that one lays down his life for his friends” [John 15:13]. The greatest love that anyone can have is a self-sacrificial kind of love. The Genuine love of God is this type of love. Jesus sacrificed Himself for us—He laid down His life for us. Also, consider this:

1 John 4:9–10
God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

This passage reveals that God extends to us the purest and most sacrificial form of love you can possibly experience now and for all time. This love comes in Father-God’s willingness to give his One and Only—His One Unique—Son for us. Notice first why God has sent His Son: so that we might live through Him. Jesus has come to give us life—abundant life—as we have already heard. 

The Father has sent Jesus to be “the propitiation for our sins.” Propitiation is a word that points to a sacrifice that deals completely with the issue of our sin and rebellion that keeps us separated from Father-God. In another key passage, we learn more about this sacrifice that Jesus makes for us:

Isaiah 53:4–5
Yet He Himself bore our sicknesses,
and He carried our pains;
but we in turn regarded Him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
But He was pierced because of our transgressions,
crushed because of our iniquities;
punishment for our peace was on Him,
and we are healed by His wounds.

We all desire and seek Genuine Love to satisfy our deepest longing to be known and treasured by another person. The purest form of Genuine Love originates with God himself. This Divine Genuine Love is also intertwined with God’s greater desires for us. As we will see, God loves us as we are, but He desires that we become like He is. We are all broken, spiritually bankrupt, rebellious, and sinful people by nature. The love of God our Father comes to transform us. We all learn to love by first experiencing love from someone else. Our Father desires that we experience His perfect, transforming love so that we may also be able to express this same type of love.

What is “Genuine Love”? Describe it in your own words.

How does the view of God presented today differ from the false views?

Scan back over or reflect on this week’s reading and ask yourself:

1. What have I learned that gave me new ideas and images?

2. How do these truths call me to change the way I am thinking?

3. How do these truths call me to trust Father-God more?

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*You can find a complete list of all the MilktoMeat readings here.