Living As God’s Beloved

What does it mean to live as one beloved of God? To know you live in the eternal love of the Creator of the Universe, who also invites us to call Him Abba—Papa?

How much do we really understand about God’s eternal love? It’s difficult to wrap our brains around the concept of eternity, isn’t it? How do finite minds even begin to comprehend the infinite?

The World . . . and You

One of the most familiar verses in the New Testament, if not the most familiar, is John 3:16 . . .  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

What do you think of when you hear this verse? At the moment there are more than 8 billion of us in the world. And many more billions added if we look back over humanity’s history and look forward to humanity’s future until Jesus’s return.

A verse referring to billions of people doesn’t sound very personal, especially when we think of ourselves as one in the crowd of billions. And that’s exactly what our spiritual enemy, the devil, wants us to think: that there’s nothing personal about God’s love.

God’s Love is Different

God doesn’t just love, He is love! His love is revealed in His nature—in every one of His attributes. Ultimately, every attribute He revealed about Himself reveals His love.

And the love God extends is extravagant: John wrote, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” Paul wrote in Romans 5:5, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” Lavished and poured out, not measured out!

The world says if someone loves us, their goal should be our happiness. But God’s love is not so much about our happiness as it is about working to accomplish His best purposes for us, in us, and through us.

Once we understand this about God’s love, living as His beloved takes on a new and powerful meaning. The very thing that makes Him God, with all His other attributes, is that He is love.

But since we don’t always recognize God’s best purposes for us, we may not recognize His love. Perhaps because we know we’re not always lovable. It’s difficult to rest in God’s love when we know we don’t deserve it. Theologian J.I. Packer described it this way: God’s love for me is  based on His “prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion Him about me.” He already knows the worst about us and still loves us!

When David wrote the psalms, he spoke of God as My Rock, My Fortress, My Refuge, My Shepherd. Can we also say with assurance, MY Rock, MY Fortress, MY Refuge…and really mean it?

Do you believe God loves you? Not just in the John 3:16 way: “For God so loved the world…” but in the most intimate, personal way, recognizing that He knows everything about you and loves you anyway. In a way that hears Him call the invitation of Song of Solomon 2:13, “Arise my love, my beautiful one, and come away.” And in a way that causes us to respond as recorded in Song of Solomon 2:16, “My Beloved is mine and I am His.”

Our Response

We talk about Him as Savior and Lord. As Messiah and Christ. As the Way, the Truth, and the Life. But how often do we refer to Jesus as our Beloved?

Twice in Song of Solomon 2, the bridegroom tells his bride to come. Come away. Just the two of them. Just as earthly relationships need time together to thrive, our relationship with God requires time with Him to flourish.

There is no one we should long for or love more than Jesus. Psalm 42:1 gives us a beautiful picture of this: “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God.” Is God our passionate, consuming focus? Is everything else and everyone else in our life filtered through our love and thirst for Him?

God’s banner over us is love. And because of Christ, we can say with confidence: My beloved is mine and I am his.

Only those who live as beloved can love others with that same unconditional love. The expression of this love is not based on the other person, but on who we are in Christ. When we live beloved, we’re able to say, “I love you, not because of what you can do for me, but because God’s love flows through me to you.” We cannot be conduits of God’s love until we rest in it . . . until we live as beloved.