DAY 1

YOU ARE GOD'S FAVORITE

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To write the love of God above Would drain the ocean dry Nor could the scroll, contain the whole Though stretched from sky to sky. —Frederick M. Lehman

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

God loves you.

No doubt, you've heard these words before. Maybe you heard them as a child in Sunday school class. It's possible that you caught them as you surfed through the television channels. Perhaps you saw the words, God Loves You on a car bumper sticker during rush-hour traffic. Perhaps these familiar words are in a song that you know.

You might even be saying to yourself at this moment, That's a really nice thought. But have you truly considered what these timeless words really mean? Consider how a holy, perfect, infinite God could ever love someone who is sinful, unholy, severely imperfect, and hopelessly finite. This is hard to comprehend, but it's true. Not only does the God of the universe love the whole world ... He loves you. The very same God who spoke heaven and earth into existence created you, loves you, and longs for you to know that you are completely and utterly treasured without measure or condition. First John 4:10a (NIV) makes this clear: "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us."

God's love cannot be compared to any other love you have encountered. The way human beings love and the way God loves are two totally different things entirely.

Human love is temperamental. When humans love, the circumstances have to be just right. Feelings are subject to change without a moment's notice, and they hinge on conditions. God's love is unconditional. To Him, circumstances don't matter. In good times or bad, when we do wrong or when we do right, God's love is always constant. His love never changes.

Human love is temporary. It can be here one moment and gone the next. People change their minds. They discard relationships and move on. Not so with God. His love is eternal. From everlasting to everlasting, He has always loved you. God loves you more than you know right at this very moment.

Human love is often tentative. People are capable of entering into relationships with caution, hesitancy, and uncertainty. Many times people give to get, having selfish ulterior motives. God's love is completely selfless. He is liberal with His affection, always giving His love sacrificially. Even now, your heavenly Father would give up everything and lay it all down, both joyfully and willingly, just for you.

God's Love for You Is Perfect

Perhaps you find it difficult to wrap your mind around the truth that God loves you without any conditions. You might be thinking, How could the God of the universe love me unconditionally? I'm flawed and scarred. I don't measure up to God's standard of perfection. I have a past, and it's not pretty. I tend to be self-seeking and prideful, even hateful at times. I have a bad temper. I can be overindulgent and insensitive. There are times that my heart is filled with greed and envy. The reasoning for not feeling good enough to receive God's love could go on and on.

Be encouraged. God knows everything about you—both good and bad—and He still loves you. He knows the areas in which you flourish and shine, and He knows where you are weak and vulnerable. Yet God loves you just the same. But that's not an excuse to become stagnant. Max Lucado said, "God loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be just like Jesus."

You are God's favorite. That's right. I'll say it again: you are God's favorite. You are unique, special, irreplaceable, and incomparable in value to Him. God loves you more passionately than any human ever could. You might think of yourself as an unimportant, nameless face in a crowd of millions. You might even think, as I did in church that day, God has His favorites and I certainly don't qualify to be one of them.

Yes, God is all-powerful, and He needs help from no one. Yet without you, your heavenly Father's joy would never be complete. It breaks His heart when you resist His love. Worse yet, it grieves Him when you don't believe that He loves you. To think this way is to silently accuse God of having imperfect love. That kind of thinking is an insult to the work that Jesus completed on the cross for you.

In Galatians 2:6-9, the Apostle Paul speaks of Jesus' beloved disciples, Peter, James, and John. If anybody could claim to find a favorite place in God's heart, certainly these men would. John even considered himself to be "the disciple whom Jesus loved" (John 19:26). These great men walked with Jesus as His closest earthly friends. Each is considered a founda tional pillar of the church. Yet the Apostle Paul said of these men:

But from those who were of high reputation (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality)—well, those who were of reputation contributed nothing to me. (Galatians 2:6 NASB)

The Bible says you are just as important to God as His beloved disciples, Peter, James, and John. Because of Christ's finished work, you qualify for God's favor just as much as they did. Let's think about this in human terms. If you had a broken leg, you would qualify to see a doctor, right? If your tooth ached, you would qualify to see a dentist. If your sink had a busted water pipe, you'd qualify to call a plumber—even if this emergency occurred in the middle of the night.

In the same manner, we as people are flawed and scarred. We don't measure up to God's perfect standards. We have a past that is not pretty. We are self-seeking and full of pride. We lose our temper and self-control. We have all sinned and missed God's mark of perfection. Figuratively speaking, we all have something in our lives that is broken, aching, and busted. So, every one of us qualifies for a...