“…that you may be children of your Father in heaven.
He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good,
and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
(Matthew 5:45)
God’s Love That Falls on Everyone
God is a God of love.
And His love is turned toward every single person.
The people we dislike,
the people who think differently from us,
the people who hate us,
and even the people we simply cannot understand—
God loves them all.
Toward every one of them,
He keeps pouring out His grace
and stretching out His loving hand again and again,
until they come to know the greatest gift of all:
Jesus Christ.
When We Struggle With God Loving the “Worst” People
Sometimes, when I hear about cruel and shocking crimes,
I catch myself thinking,
“There is no way that person could ever go to heaven.”
Then I wonder,
“God is a God of justice…
but does He really love someone like that?
Would He give even that person a chance?”
I think about those
who take the lives of pregnant women,
who buy and sell orphans for money,
who seem to snatch away the lives of the weak
without a second thought.
I can’t understand this side of God’s character.
I can’t even imagine it fully.
Loving Our Enemies: Humanly Impossible
And yet, because God is so good,
He tells us to love our enemies too.
It is so hard to apply this in my own life.
It really is.
With my own strength,
I could never obey this command.
It’s impossible—and that is only natural.
That is why the Holy Spirit is with us.
We absolutely need His help.
God causes His sun to shine even on the wicked,
and He sends the rain they need as well.
Sometimes, that feels unfair to me—
that God is so full of love and mercy.
But I think it also means
He wants us to slowly become more like Him.
Soaked in His Love, Overflowing to Others
A sinner like me
has been loved by God.
How can I not praise
The God who gives every person a chance?
There is no one
who can live without the love of God.
I pray that you and I
will be soaked through with His love,
and that through both of us,
that love will flow out
in every direction.