I Have Loved You

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You're listening to my Morning Devotional podcast, episode 1379. Today's devotion is called I have loved you. Hey there. We're the Alessi's 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.

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That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional podcast. Good morning everybody and happy Thursday.

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My name is Rachelle Alessi, and I am here today with my husband, Chris Alessi, as we finish out this week on comfort and loss. And our whole theme for October has been just overcoming October. And Chris, you had a beautiful episode yesterday, and I don't even want to take too much of introduction because I just want to get to today because I know you have something wonderful again today that will bless our listeners who are going through this time. And. Yeah, so take it away.

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Well, thank you for having me again. You had some great episodes Monday and Tuesday. I like Malachi chapter one, verse two. Malachi is not really a great book in the sense that it's having to. It's kind of like the dislocation book.

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It's like, okay, everything is dislocated, let's get it back. And that's a hard process. It's painful. But he opens the whole book. Malachi 1, verse 2. And 1 is just the oracle of the Lord. So the very first verse from God's mouth is, I have loved you, says the Lord. And then he goes into them, questioning his love for them and him having to kind of walk them through where they've made mistakes and all that.

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But I say that because on the very front end of this book where God is going to fix what's been broken, he reminds them, hey, I have loved you.

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And I think that that's such a hard thing to connect with when we're going through grief and loss, that the Lord has loved us. It's probably the season of our life where we feel the least loved. But, you know, I say this very carefully because we can't always look at our relationships on earth and then reflect them in the heavens.

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But as a father, I know I'm limited in what I can really do for Marino, but I know where my heart's at for my son. And I don't believe God is limited in his ability. But I do know that we are living in a broken world. And so I don't know if we can look at what's going on in earth and say it all reflects the heart of God, I don't think we should look at the grief and the pain and the loss and then look to the heavens and say, you have not loved me. If anything, I actually believe heaven is looking down. So brokenhearted, wanting to remind us, I have loved you. Because as we are picking up the pieces of our lives after tragedy, as we are trying to get back to a new mountaintop, it's important to build that on the foundation of God has loved me. I've been so unbelievably moved lately by looking at my boy and just knowing if this is the love I have for him. How much more does my father love me? How much more does my heavenly Father love me? For him to look at a people that had been so fallen away in the book of Malachi and start this book with I've loved you. This is the book where he says, you've robbed me.

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And in that he wants them to know, but I've loved you in the same way those that are going through grief and loss, how much more has God loved you? It goes back to what you said at the beginning, that those who mourn will be comforted because he is near to the brokenhearted, near to the crushed in spirit. And we're lucky, and we'll talk about this more tomorrow. But the Lord is the restorer of the soul, and he can restore us because he still loves us. I know it is difficult to look into a past full of tragedy and see the love of God.

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But you need to know, listener of this podcast, that if he dresses the lilies, how much more will he dress you? You are building your day on the foundation of a God who loves you.

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And I pray that as you rebuild and pick up the pieces, you know that God is your partner in that because he loves you. Amen. That's so beautiful. God loves us.

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That's something we can hold on to today. Can you pray for us? Yes, Lord. My words may seem so shallow to the person going through the pain, so I pray that you would show they're not my words, but they are yours. I pray that even as this podcast comes to a close, they'd stop hearing our voices and they'd start hearing yours.

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Because you have loved them. You love them.

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And that love, as your word says, we could never be separated from it. So as they pick up the pieces of their life, I pray your love would fuel and be the foundation as they pick up the pieces and move into their next in Jesus name.

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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.