Ministry Today

Rick Warren: The Width of God’s Love

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Written by Rick Warren

“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” (Eph. 3:18-19, NLT).

The width of God’s love extends across the entire world and includes everyone he has created: “The Lord is righteous in all his ways and loving toward all he has made” (Ps. 145:17, NIV).

God never made a person that he didn’t love. He made you and he loves you—and God doesn’t make junk! He loves you unconditionally. He loves you very, very much.

Everybody matters to God; in fact, we see in the life of Jesus that he even loves the unlovely and those who may feel unlovable. Do you want to know the secret of self-esteem? Here it is: If you want confidence, then understand how much you matter to God. If God loves you, who cares what anybody else thinks?

Because God loves you, there’s no need to prove your self-worth. We don’t have to wear certain kinds of clothes to make us feel like we’re OK or drive a certain kind of car to prop up our faltering egos. We don’t need status symbols anymore.

Talk About It

• How wide is God’s love? Wide enough to be everywhere! There’s no place you can be where God isn’t. How does that change the way you love others?
• If God is everywhere, why do so many people struggle with loneliness?

Rick Warren is the founding pastor of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, Calif., one of America’s largest and most influential churches. Rick is author of the New York Times bestseller The Purpose Driven Life. His book, The Purpose Driven Church, was named one of the 100 Christian books that changed the 20th century. He is also the founder of Pastors.com, a global Internet community for pastors.

This devotional ©2013 by Rick Warren. All rights reserved. Used by permission.