Crazy Love Chapter 3: Crazy Love

Chapter 3: Crazy Love

      

I had to put this in here when I came across it! There are so many of these
"Keep Calm" images popping up and this one fits very well with this post.

      

After having initial raised eyebrows about the titles of the first two chapters, the third chapter title comes a little more straightforward considering it is the chapter of the book as well, Crazy Love.

Did you know that God loves you? God wants to have a relationship with you. Love is a hard word/emotion to define, but if you want a “technical” definition, according to Mirriam Webster, love is defined as “a feeling of strong or constant affection.” God is constantly showing affection for us and wants us to see that knowing Him is the greatest good we can have here on earth. We can see this from the last chapter through his wonderful creation. Did he have to make all the things he did? No. But he wanted to show us his glory so we can grow in knowing who He is. The greatest good is not in our finances, job, technology, or family. God is the greatest good we can ever come to know on earth and he wants us to have a relationship with him. Some wonder why a loving God would use things like hell and eternal punishment to force us to love him, but if God is the greatest gift available to us, why wouldn’t He, who loves us so much, want the best for us and want us to come to Him? He is only doing what is best for us and He is definitely looking out for us.

For an example of how much God loves us, think about the Garden of Gethsemane and how Jesus was praying to his Father in heaven. He was pleading with God to not have to go through with the crucifixion the next day, asking if there was any way out. Jesus even began to sweat blood because he was in so much anguish and sorrow thinking about what he must do. God had to say no to his Son and let him go through with his death on the cross. God knew what needed to be done and he showed his love for us by keeping us in mind when His Son was begging Him to allow another way out. Imagine being in the Father’s shoes there. Your Son is pleading with you very earnestly and praying that he may have a way out. He even sweats blood! God had to say no to this, knowing Jesus was going to be crucified. Now, I am not a father, but if the Lord blesses me with a child and that child is pleading with me so hard that blood starts coming out. I don't think I am going to be able to say no! But that just shows how much God loves us. If you are a father, or even not, think of a person you love so much and what it would be like to be in a situation like this.

Returning love back to God is not always an easy thing for us to do. Again referencing back to last chapter, we often go through our day not recognizing God for who he is or what he has done for us. But Jesus gives us the greatest commandment when he says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” If we can start getting to a lifestyle where we can constantly be thinking of and thanking God by recognizing all the things he has made and done for us, we will have a life filled with prayer, devotion, and praise to God. There is one important thing we need to keep in mind here and check ourselves on though. We need to make sure that we love God and not just his stuff. Don’t just love God because you can avoid eternal punishment, love God because of who He is, what he has done for us and how much he first loved us.