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Psalm 103:11-12
For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

The believer finds their true identity in Jesus. In Christ, we are significant, secure, accepted, forgiven, and empowered. God loves us so much that he sent his Son to die for our sins, and that love continues to embrace us every day. In his book, The Knowledge of the Holy, A. W. Tozer described the extent of God’s great love.

God’s love shows us that he is friendly, and his Word assures us that he is our friend and wants us to be his friend. Tozer says, “No man with a trace of humility would first think that he is a friend of God; but the idea did not originate with men.” God himself said that Abraham was his friend. And he desires the same friendship with us.

Love is an emotional identification. Tozer writes, “It is a strange and beautiful eccentricity of the free God that He has allowed His heart to be emotionally identified with men. Self-sufficient as He is, He wants our love and will not be satisfied till He gets it. Free as He is, He has let His heart be bound to us forever.”

Love takes pleasure in its object. “The Lord,” Tozer says, “takes peculiar pleasure in His saints. . . Christ in His atonement has removed the bar to the divine fellowship. Now in Christ all believing souls are objects of God’s delight.”

It’s hard to imagine such an all-encompassing love. We know our sin and failure. Yet God continues to embrace us with his love and forgiveness. How do we respond to such unconditional compassion?

Heavenly Father, thank you for loving me. Thank you for loving me when I am unlovable. Thank you for forgiving my sin and failure. Thank you for a relationship with you through Jesus. Thank you for calling me your friend. In Jesus’ name. Amen.