Prodigal: I reckon this day will be hotter than the frying pan.

Me: I might have to agree with you on that.

This is from the book The Cross of Christ by John R.W. Stott

Paul also writes about the love of God in the first half of Romans 5. He refers to it twice, and thereby supplies us with two complementary ways of becoming assured of its reality. The first is that God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us’ (v5). The second is that God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (v8). One of the most satisfying aspects of the gospel is the way in which it combines the objective and the subjective, the historical and the experimental, the work of God’s Son and the work of God’s Spirit. We may know that God loves us, Paul says, both because he has proved his love in history through the death of his Son, and because he continuously pours it into our hearts through the indwelling of his Spirit. And although we shall concentrate, as Paul does, on the objective demonstration of God’s love at the cross, we shall not forget that the Holy Spirit confirms that historical witness by his own inward and personal witness, as he floods our hearts with the knowledge that we are loved. It is similar to our experience of the Holy Spirit testifying with our spirit that we are God’s children – witness he bears when, as we pray, he enables us to cry “Abba, Father’, because we then know ourselves to be God’s justified, reconciled, redeemed and beloved children (Rom 8:15-16).

God gave us a gift. He gave something that was part of Him for us. Something we did not deserve. Something that we take for granted. The Lord has granted us this love, so that we may know what true love is. That we may say that no matter what has happened to us in the past, we can say we were loved.

Psalm 104:24

O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.

Jennifer Van Allen

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org