December 30

Malachi 1:1-2:17; Revelation 21:1-27; Psalm 149:1-9; Proverbs 31:10-24

Do you ever find yourself asking questions of God? Why did you allow this to happen? Why did you not act in a particular situation? We all have questions of God and some of them will not be answered until eternity, but we can always ask God anything.

The people in Malachi’s day had lost sight of God’s love and so even when God told them they were loved they asked him “How have you loved us?” God’s initial response was to point back to his covenant with Jacob/Israel. He reminded them of how he had chosen their descendants out of all the nations on earth. He was trying to reignite their memory of all he had done throughout the Old Testament to show his love continually to his people. Now, if we have this same question, we can look back to the extreme expression of God’s love which was the death of Jesus. As Romans 5:8 tells us, “But God demonstrates his own love for us…” If we wrestle with whether we are loved by God we can first look back to how he has demonstrated it continually in the past.

If we struggle with God’s love, we can not only look to the past but can look forward to what God will do to show his love. Revelation 21 describes God’s dwelling with his people on the new earth. He will remove all tears, death, mourning, crying, and pain, and replace them with the unimaginable joy of being with him. This future reality cements the fact that God loves us because he will be with us forever in a place unstained by sin. What joy these thoughts should bring to us, knowing that God has proved his love in the past, proves his love today, and will reveal it for all eternity. How loved you are!

Father God, thank you for your love. Help me know how much I am loved by you today. Amen.

Question: How can you know that you are loved by God?

No Comments