A Different Kind of Love

God indeed loves everyone in His creation, including you. Jesus, Himself, makes this abundantly clear with this declaration:

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

The fact that God loves you is an agreeable consideration for most people. The truth of God’s word reveals that God has a different love for the ones who seek Him out.

The scripture makes this observation about a love that rewards the people who seek to know God:

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Heb 11:6)

Are you, by faith, seeking God? How and what kind of love are you experiencing with God?

David, King of Israel, asked God to reveal Himself with these words:

“Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.” (Psa 17:7)

Just a casual reading of the Psalms reveals the depth of love that God held for David yet David pleaded with God for a fresh experience with his Heavenly Father. David uses the word “lovingkindness” for the first time in the 17th Psalm and reuses it 20 more times in the balance of the songbook. It is apparent that God did reveal His “lovingkindness” to the King and he, in his songs to God, asked to experience it again 20 more times.

God’s love is unversal to all in His creation but He has a special love for the ones who seek Him out to experience His love in a personal, deep way.

David experienced God’s love differently than any of the other Old Testament believers in God. God revealed His “lovingkindness” to David by gifting him with the presence of the Holy Spirit in the King’s life. When David damaged his relationship with God with his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah he pleaded with God:

“Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.” (Psa 51:11)

David had discovered a different kind of love that he had received from God. King David, having the understanding and having experienced God’s “lovingkindness”, did not want to lose this kind of love. David was remorseful for his sin because he had been blessed with the Holy Spirit and the presence of his Creator.

Everyone in God’s creation is a recipient of His love… but not all will know His “lovingkindness.”

The scripture gives us this understanding of God’s universal love:

“The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.” (Psa 145:9)

Jesus said this about God’s universal love:

“He maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Mat 5:45)

To experience God’s love that He directs towards His creation is a blessing to all who experience it but God wants you to know the same “lovingkindness” that David had. This kind of love is available only to the people who move beyond the universal love that God directs toward His creation. This depth of love is reserved for the people who respond to His love and loves Him back.

Jesus said, “God so loved the world” but God has reserved both His Holy Spirit and “everlasting life” promised by Jesus to the ones who will “whosoever believeth in Him.”

What kind of love are you receiving from God? Are you in the number who know His universal love or do you have His Holy Spirit and “everlasting life?”

God does love you as you are but if you are to experience His “lovingkindness” you must respond to the gospel of Jesus.

Call on His name for the forgiveness of your sins and Jesus will give you the Holy Spirit and reveal to you God’s “lovingkindness.”