(Continued)
As I was preparing for the next email, I believe the Holy Spirit wants me to add a Part 2 to the message titled, "Accepting God's love". What I believe the Holy Spirit has highlighted is that there may have been certain people who struggled with the thought of God loving and accepting them, without it being based upon their performance; and that they firstly need to know that God is love and that He loves.
Below are a few scriptures where the bible speaks with this subject:
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.
Romans 5:8
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 8:35-39
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 John 4:16
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
Jeremiah 31:3
I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.
Psalm 103:8
The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
1 John 4:19
We love because he first loved us.
Lamentations 3:22-23
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Isaiah 54:10
For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you.
1 John 3:1
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.
Psalm 103:2-5
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.
Ephesians 2:4-5
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.
1 John 4:9-10
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Isaiah 49:16
Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands ...
Psalm 62:7-8
On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us.
Psalm 103:13
As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
Isaiah 41:13
For I, the Lord your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.”
I trust that these scriptures will help you understand that the God we serve loves us and that this knowledge is the foundation on which we believe every other promise or instruction He has given us in His word.
If you can think of at least one other person that might be encouraged by this message then please forward it on to them