“And a voice from heaven said, ‘You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy’.” Mark 1:11
Two times we see in scripture where Jesus received love and affirmation from His Heavenly Father. Have you ever stopped to consider why God did that? I have to conclude that God did it because He knew His Son needed to hear it. Jesus, having set His Godly endowment of power aside to take on the form of a man, needed to hear those words from His Heavenly Father. We see this at both the beginning of His earthly ministry, and toward the end.
If Jesus needed to hear and know how much His Heavenly Father loved Him, then how much more do we need to hear it and know it? The truth is, we need to hear it often and so God has given both His word and His Spirit to tell us just how much He loves us.
Paul, under the unction of the Holy Spirit, wanted us to know just how much we are loved by the Father, and he described how we would flourish like a tree as we were rooted and grounded in God’s love for us.
Paul writes in Ephesians 3:16-19, “I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”
Today, be reminded that you are so loved by your Heavenly Father that He would not spare anything, even His Son, Jesus, for you.