by Ronald G Baars

Created on: November 03, 2009

Reflections: God's love

As I sit and ponder the depth and breadth of God's love I wonder if there is any way I could possibly understand it. How is it that I could begin to comprehend the love of an all seeing all knowing being? He created the universe and all that is in it. How could I in my limited perspective ever understand the great and infinite gift of God's love? As I struggle, in my imperfect knowledge, to define it I offer you this. God's love is the infinite, unconditional love to which all other forms of love aspire. So while I may never understand the extent and power of God's love, He has given me divinely appointed attributes to help me begin the journey to understanding.

The greatest of these is agency. God has given unto man the ability to act for himself and to choose. I must always keep in mind that agency is, however, a double edged sword. If I use it to destroy or to hurt others or if I use it to defy the laws of God then I will eventually face the natural consequences of my actions. The most profound of those consequences will be the limiting of my agency. Whether that is done through me ending up in jail or worse yet I might end up dead because I picked a fight I couldn't finish.

God has also given me the ability to reason and to work out my own salvation. I can use the power of my own mind, in coordination with the fruits of knowledge and wisdom that come from appropriately executed agency to discern right from wrong. If I choose the right and build, line upon line precept upon precept, my understanding of the good word of God I can begin to more fully appreciate God's love. I can also, through this process, come to admire the great sacrifices that God, our Eternal Heavenly Father, the creator of the universe, made for us.

Another gift that God has given us to help us in our journey through this mortal probation is the knowledge that we are his sons and daughters and were created in his image. As we understand this we can more fully appreciate our own potential and we can feel more fully of our Heavenly Father's love as we recognize that, just like any loving parent, his goal is to help us progress and to reach our full potential. That is why he has given us rules to follow. Not to limit our agency but to allow us to stay safe and to be protected from all the dangerous and deadly forces in the world that would quickly drag us down into a pit of woe. Things like drugs and pornography and many others that can distort our perceptions of

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