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You're listening to the My Morning Devotional Podcast, episode 1471. Today's devo is called, "A Loving Father." Hey there, we're the Alessis, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to-do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a 5-minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional podcast. Welcome back everybody to the My Morning Devotional podcast. I am your host for the week, Gabby Kaladioud, joined by my husband. Babe, say hello, greet everybody.
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Hi, I'm excited to be here. My name is Christian Kaladioud. Obviously I gave Gabby her new name, so that's very exciting. And yeah, I'm really excited to be here. I know My Morning Devotional is, you know, impacting a lot of lives out there. A lot of men too, I'm hearing, are listening as well. So men and women. So I'm excited to share with you guys.
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I'm excited for you to have me on here. I know, this is awesome. And kudos to you, to the team, to the girls, to Alan, who helps facilitate and produce this. You guys have really created something special here. So it's pretty cool to be on it and help touch some lives.
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Thank you so much for doing this. This is special. And I brought you in because it is the month of February. It's the month of love. But we're not talking about relational love today, or at least love between your relationships. We're going to talk about the love of God. And what we're going to do is actually have a whole series this entire week. We're going to cover the love of God and how the love of God impacts us.
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So why don't you take them into it? Really, you're kind of guest hosting for the week. So I want them to hear from you. I've been wanting this to happen. So this is really special. But what are we going to be covering when it comes to the topic of the love of God? Yeah, well, you know, I think it's important to look at God as a whole. I think it's important to look at everything that God is. You know, God is compassionate, he's loving, he's kind, but he's also just and he's also fair.
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But I think what can encapsulate that the most is that God is a father. Yeah. You know, he's not just a God that is in the heavens that is far away from you, but he's somebody that wants to be near. He's someone that wants to be dear. But as a father, he cannot sacrifice the other characteristics that he has. Yeah. You know, he can't sacrifice his justice for his love. And vice versa, he can't sacrifice his love for his justice, which is good news for us.
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So as we kind of go through these next episodes, right?
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Or this whole week, we're really teeing up and talking about the different characteristics that make God a great Father. And they're also what make him a great God. So I'm gonna go ahead and read.
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And I'd also say it's the way that God loves us. The reason why we wanted to talk about this is when we were both saying, okay, let's talk about the love of God. We both just kept thinking about how he is a father to us. Yeah, and it's just the best picture of how loving he is. Yeah, so jump into it. Let's do it.
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This is new to me. All right, so I didn't know we. Got a couple minutes. I didn't know what, you know, kind of what happened, but we're going to be reading from 1 John 3:1 and it says this See what great love the Father has lavished on us. That we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. And I, you know, I love that verse because it's— he's talking about something in specific there. And obviously this is John writing to a specific church that he would have been pastoring or help shepherding. And when he says see what great love the Father has lavished on us.
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It's not a warm embrace. It's not something that they can, you know, automatically feel all the time, but he is talking about something in specific, and he's talking about Christ crucified and raised to life again. And there is no other great— there is no love that is greater, right? And this is Christ himself that says this. There's no love that is greater than someone that is willing to give his life for friend. How much greater is a love that is a father that is willing to give his son for his other children? So when you talk about, you know, a love that we have been lavished with, and I love that word lavished. It is, it is a word of splendor. It's a word of kingly riches. We have been lavished with the love of the Father through his Son, Jesus Christ, that endured the cross, right? And scorned the shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God to be an interceder for us and to make sure that in the courtroom of God, we have someone that knows our biggest difficulties, that knows our biggest pains, that knows what it is to experience the worst of the worst, but also knows what it is to endure. So when we talk about the love that has been lavished on us, you know, we can kind of go through our minds and say, well, I haven't really felt God's love in my life.
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You know, I haven't really felt him to be a loving father, to be the different things. But at the end of the day, the greatest love that he has ever given us is through his son, through his son, and it's through his son Jesus. So I think that's really special and important to know because I feel like when we talk about the love of God, some people can sometimes be a little bit confused and be like, well, I don't feel that love. Yeah, when in reality it's been there all along. It's— well, it's the reason that we're free. Yeah, it's the reason that we feel the peace. And so I think this is a great reminder. Even as you're talking, I'm reminded by, man, we almost take it for granted that the grace and the freedom and the, the just the acceptance and the life that we have now, that all came through the greatest gesture of love from our Heavenly Father. So if this is a reminder that you needed, receive it today.
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Maybe you don't feel the love. Maybe you don't feel, you don't feel love from others around you. Receive the love from God our Father, that he made the sacrifice for you and I. That's right. And I'm so grateful for that sacrifice. And so let's pray as we close out this episode.
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We pray this blessed you as it takes you into this next whole series of the love of God. But let's just end it by thanking the Lord for his sacrifice and the love that he shared in that. Father, we just thank you for your love. We thank you for your sacrifice. We thank you that you sacrificed your son for us, and that is the greatest gesture and symbol of your love for us. Father, I pray that in this day, as we go about our day with our children, Lord, with our jobs, with our school, whatever we're facing today, Father, that we would be reminded of how much you love us, and that love would give us a grace for our day. We thank you for it all. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
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Amen. And amen. So there you have it, your 5-minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend, leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow, we pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.
