God is Love

Today's lesson in Relief Society just about made me crumble to my knees. It was powerful and was exactly what I needed.

"It is my desire to remind you of the nature and kind of being that God is, so that you may worship him in spirit and in truth and thereby gain all of the blessings of his gospel." -President Joseph Fielding Smith

I feel like a lot of my time is spent trying to know who I am. But today, my thoughts were turned to trying to get to know who God is. I know he is my Heavenly Father and I have a firm testimony of that. However, I have tendency to neglect to understand who he is and what he is like.

"Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his son to be the one propitiation for our sins." -1 John 4:7-10

Powerful. I don't know about you, but when I read this today, I was blown away. This brought me back to one of my favorite favorite scriptures:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life." -John. 3:16

 Bam! Right there is true love! God placed us here on earth and provided us with a gospel plan of salvation through his son, Jesus Christ. Through this, we may be able to return to him and receive exaltation and eternal life. Whoa. That's love, people.
I was thinking a lot about how I can't comprehend how much God and Jesus Christ love me. Then in class, we read this scripture.

"Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth, believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend." -Mosiah 4:9

Then I came across this quote from Milton R. Hunter and it hit the spot:

"They [God and Jesus Christ] have much greater intelligence and understanding than we have, and so their feelings of love go far beyond our capacities to love."

So Deity's transcendent love is above and beyond our deepest feelings and keenest conception. When we feel the spirit so strongly, we experience a greater magnitude of God's love. Beautiful, right?
This is only the beginning of my journey to come to know who God is. I invite you to also find out for yourself who God is. Study his characteristics and his nature. That's what I'll be studying this week! Happy Sunday, everyone! God loves you and that's something to smile about!