Does God's love make a difference?

Have you ever noticed that God’s love makes changes in us?

Lately God's been teaching me more about His love.

I think it all started with a prayer I prayed about a month ago taken from Ephesians 3:14-19 (NLT):

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.

I prayed this for myself.

Repeatedly over the past month God has shown me in His Word His great love for me. His grace and His mercy.

In the past I think I've unconsciously fallen into the religious trap of being afraid that if I emphasize God's love, grace & mercy too much I'll just go out and sin (I mean I'm forgiven anyway so why not?!) But understanding God's love has just the opposite effect - His love frees me to draw near to Him. When I'm connected to Him, He works changes in my life.

I've posted a few times of the areas I'm seeking God on in my life right now - refraining from complaining and overflowing with love toward those difficult people (and I gotta tell you, I think for some reason I've got way more of these folks in my life than the average person does!).

I was so blessed today to receive a note from my beloved husband. I haven't shared about these two specific things with him. But his note today told me that he loves me and is grateful for me (he always says wonderful things like this - am I blessed or what?!) and then he noted that he's seen a difference in me lately. He said he's noticed that I'm positive, praising and patient. Wow - now that's a God thing! I've known me for 49yrs and this is not a change I can produce on my own. Only as I'm spending time in Him can these changes happen. It is His great love for me that draws me to Him.

What’s God been showing you lately about His love?