“The Lord your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.”
— Zephaniah 3:17

I think it can be hard for us as human beings who face tragedies and hardships to truly grasp how much God loves us. I know it is for me. We’re faced with so many challenges in this world. We see so much suffering around us, so many people in pain, so much divorce, so many people who have been betrayed in relationships. We are surrounded by darkness, and when we live in this world for long, we can become jaded by it.

Then we read a verse like Zephaniah 3:17 that tells us the Lord loves us so much He is shouting over us. His banner over us is love (Song of Sol. 2:4). To believe God loves us with such abandon truly requires a paradigm shift that takes our eyes off the spiritual darkness we encounter in this world and onto the pure light of God’s supernatural love for us.

Beloved, I want to tell you today that above the clouds of this world is the Son of God, whose love is beaming down on our lives. In fact Father God loves you with the same strength with which He loves Jesus Himself.

You see, all of the Father’s love is focused on His Son, and you and I have been adopted into and are now in the Son. (See Ephesians 1:5.)

Whatever pressures you are facing, it is going to be OK. You are going to make it to the end, and there awaits you a crown of righteousness and heaven itself. (See 2 Timothy 4:8.) Darkness lasts for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

God loves you, beloved. No matter what you have done or how you have missed the mark, God rejoices over you with shouts of joy. Believe it!

Father God, it is amazing to me that You would rejoice over me with shouts of joy, but I believe Your Word. Thank You for loving me so extravagantly and for raising a banner of victory over my life. I believe I am more than a conqueror in You.

Rabbi Kirt A. Schneider, Rivers of Revelation (Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2020), Used by permission.