Because I am God, your personal God, The Holy of Israel, your Savior. I paid a huge price for you: all of Egypt, with rich Cush and Seba thrown in! That’s how much you mean to me! That’s how much I love you! I’d sell off the whole world to get you back, trade the creation just for you.
(Isaiah 43:3-4 MSG)
Christian author, Ann Mainse, tells the story of how when he was growing up, her husband, Ron Mainse, was taught by his wise mother not to say, “I love you” to a girl unless he was serious about her and would someday marry her. So when Ron told Ann he loved her, she knew that he meant business.
It’s the same way with God. When He says, “I love you” He truly means it. In today’s passage, and in various others through Scripture, God not only expresses His love for His children, but He also goes above and beyond to display it. The ultimate demonstration of that love was on the cross, when out of His great love for us, God gave us the gift of His only Son, so that we could be forgiven and worthy of heaven:
This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. (John 3:16)
Do you love God? Just remember that He’s looking for someone who truly means the words, “I love you.”
I love you, God. (Psalm 18:1)
Rising with the Son 