This question first rang in my ears several years ago and is still reverberating in there. The question hits fast and hard right to my core every time I contemplate it's implications on my life. It's a hard question to answer, but our response to it is one of the most important we can make. To feel the full, glorious impact of this question, we have to examine a few things. Firstly: How much does God love us? "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love" (1 John 4:8). And to quote the most quoted verse in the Bible, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16). Seeing as God is the definition of love and that his love is directed toward all of us, I'd say that he loves us infinitely more than we can understand.

What If We Understood How Much God Loved Us?

Keeping in mind the magnitude of his love, let's look at another implication of this question: What would you do if you fully understood God's love for you? The answer to this question is different for everyone, and for obvious reasons. Our unique makeups were purposefully crafted so that each of us responds to this challenge in a one-of-a-kind way. Some will respond by becoming missionaries, others will open up a clothing business, and others will use their minds to develop incredible scientific discoveries. God's desire is not to make us drones so that we abandon all happiness and reason and become Stoics or fanatics. By responding to this question in our own way that glorifies God, we will find ourselves becoming increasingly diverse. “How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been; how gloriously different are the saints.” (C. S. Lewis). God knows that the only way we will be truly ourselves is on the journey to love him as much as he loves us.

Finally, what if we don't feel love for God anywhere near the level we know we ought? Well, this is the fun part. When we pursue God, build a relationship with him, and ask him for help, we will end up loving him more and more each day. His love will grow our love in an otherwise unsustainable climb toward love that defies all circumstances and difficulties.

So let me ask you this: What would you do today if you loved God as much as he loves you?