Do you ever pray and ask the Lord to speak a word to you and have the first thing you hear be "I love you"? Do you ever discount that and think, "I always hear that - I want a real word"?

I was thinking about that tonight. Very often when I ask the Lord for a word for someone or even myself, it is the first thing I hear, and I sometimes don't give it its full impact or I want to move on from that thought since I hear it so much. Sometimes I fear I might sound too cheesy when speaking the words "God loves you" to someone else.

The truth is, though, that it is the first and foremost thing that God thinks about us. He loves us. It ordains everything that He does and has done for us and is the very reason that we can stand redeemed before Him.

No wonder He tells us overtly so very often. It is simply the spoken words that parallel everything He has ever done in our lives, from the minute to the very grand. And it is truth, pure and simple.

God loves you.

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. (Ephesians 2:4-5)