Our God is Abounding in Love

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God lives in them.

1 John 4:16

We are currently in a series studying Exodus 34:6 and the character of God revealed through this Scripture: “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.”

For more in depth guidance, we encourage you to check out the Bible Project’s series on the Character of God that also focuses on Exodus 34.

Also, if you missed any of the previous weeks in the series, you can find them here: week one, week two, week three & week four.

This week we focus on how God is abounding in love and how this helps define our identities as beloved children of the Father.

Devotion: Our God is Abounding in Love

Gather your family and read Exodus 34:6. Highlight the phrase abounding in love. What does it mean to be abounding? (Let your children offer ideas) Good, it means to have a lot of something. What’s one thing you’ve seen be abundant? (Pause to hear some thoughts) What’s one thing you wish you could have an abundance of? (Let them answer and have fun with it) That’s really fun, we can also abound in things like joy or energy, what do you think that looks like?

One way we can think about abounding is like water being poured into a glass. If the water is abounding, there is a lot and will probably make the water overflow out of the glass. Just like the water was too much for the glass, so God’s love is abounding and more than any of us could ever hold or need. But, although overflowing water can leave us with a mess to clean up, God’s love overflowing is a good thing because it means there’s enough for everyone!

In another part of the Bible, it tells us this about God’s love: “God is love. Whoever lives in love, lives in God, and God lives in them.” What do you think it means to live in love? (allow for some thoughts) Right, it means to always have that love with you, and since God is love, it means staying close to God all the time. There’s a great word for this: abide.

How do we abide in love? First, we remember that we are loved by God and that He wants us to stay in close relationship with Him. What are good ways to stay close to God? What about when you are happy? What about when you feel sad? Or scared? Or tired? How else can you stay close to God? When do you sometimes forget about God and His love?

Let’s pray and ask God to help us remember to abide in His love and also overflow with love onto others, just like He does for us. Close in prayer together.