Choose Love: Understanding God's Heart for You This Easter (2025)
- RD Montgomery
- Apr 16
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 30
I would like to spend some time with you this Easter season addressing a fundamental but often misunderstood or misrepresented truth. You may hear the words that God loves you. You may know John 3:16. But what you might have missed is:
God wants to have a committed and intimate relationship with you.
He wants to spend eternity with people that choose to love Him. He wants the relationship to be intimate. He will adopt those that choose Him as His forever sons and daughters.
Your relationship with God will never be healthy unless you fully understand this concept. People that get it wrong create religious ideas that might:
See God as a Distant Transactional Figure: If intimacy with God isn't a priority, He might be seen primarily as a cosmic vending machine: put in the right "prayer," get the desired outcome (forgiveness, heaven ticket, etc.). This transactional view misses the loving Father who desires connection.
Focus on Rules Over Relationship: Without a relational understanding, faith can become a rigid adherence to rules and regulations, rather than a flowing conversation of love and obedience. God's commandments are then a burden, not an expression of love in response to His love.
Have Insecurity and Fear: If closeness with God isn't internalized, there can be persistent insecurity about one's standing with Him. Fear of failure to measure up to a list of rules overshadows the security of being loved and accepted as a child.
Misunderstand Worship: Worship can degrade into empty rituals or performances aimed at earning God's favor, rather than a heartfelt expression of love and adoration for who He is.
Have a Limited View of Salvation: Salvation is reduced to escaping hell instead of embracing a restored and vibrant life with God, both now and eternally. The joy of walking with God daily is missed.
Share their Faith from the Wrong Heart: Evangelism becomes a sales pitch to get people to "convert," rather than an overflow of one's own loving relationship with God, inviting others into the same intimacy.
Before we go any further. This post is not intended for you to over correct. God does love you, but that does not mean you can do anything you want because that is not choosing Him. Choosing Him means choosing holiness for yourself.
Holiness. Chief attribute of God and a quality to be developed in his people. "Holiness" and the adjective "holy" occur more than 900 times in the Bible. The primary OT word for holiness means "to cut" or "to separate." Fundamentally, holiness is a cutting off or separation from what is unclean, and consecration to what is pure. Walter A. Elwell and Barry J. Beitzel, Baker encyclopedia of the Bible, 1988, 1, 984.
2 Corinthians 6:17-18 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you,18 and I will be a father to you,and you shall be sons and daughters to me,says the Lord Almighty."
The Cross bridges the gap
During the Easter season, and hopefully all the rest of the year, we need to put what Jesus did on the cross in its right perspective. To say the cross was only about saving someone from their sins cheapens what He did.
Our sin creates a gap between us and God, preventing the intimate relationship He desires. This separation isn't because of God's unwillingness, but it results from our own sinful nature, which cannot coexist with His perfect holiness. Jesus' death on the cross bridges this gap, removing the barrier of our sin and restoring our connection with God. Through His sacrifice, He makes it possible for us to enter into the close relationship with God that He has always wanted for us.
So, you see, the cross isn’t just about paying for your sins or providing you a ticket to Paradise, it is about providing a way for you to be close to God.
Looking at the Covenants through Hosea
What does this type of language remind you of?
I will be yours, and you will be mine. (Extracted from Genesis 17:7-8)
It reminds me of marriage, which is another way we can view God's covenants. They are commitments between two parties to be faithful to one another. We see the imagery of marriage in Hosea. Hosea was a prophet to the Northern Kingdom (Israel). God asks Hosea to illustrate God’s love and hurt through a very odd love story that no one would make into a romantic fairytale.
In a fairytale, we would never expect the Handsome Prince to marry and offer a "happily ever after" to the cruel, selfish, and whorish princess. If they married, we would expect that He would leave her when she is repeatedly unfaithful and choosing cheap thrills with unsavory men. After he leaves her and she suffers the consequences of her actions, the Prince would be free to divorce her and exit the dysfunctional relationship. What no one would expect is that He would pledge His love to her again and promise to restore her. And the idea of Him dying for her so she wouldn't be punished? That's not how fairytales usually go.
Yet, the story of God's pursuit of humanity, mirrored in Hosea's relationship with Gomer, shatters the expected romantic storyline. It's a narrative where the betrayed King relentlessly pursues His adulterous bride (humanity/Israel), absorbing the consequences of her unfaithfulness through the ultimate sacrifice. This isn't a tale of deserved reconciliation, but of radical, unconditional love that defies our logic. It's a love that seeks not just to rescue from punishment, but to restore deep intimacy, offering a redemption that no fairytale audience would ever anticipate – a testament to a grace far beyond our deserving.
If you have not read Hosea or you have not read it lately, add it to your reading plan. Watch this video first:
My Easter message to you:
God wants you to KNOW Him, and this is more than an intellectual pursuit. It requires a relational component. Drawing closer to God is not different from drawing closer to anyone. There are two basic components:
The more positive things you learn about them, the more you can appreciate them for who they are and what they stand for.
The more they show how they feel about you, the more comfortable you can be to return those feelings.
You can learn more about both in the Bible, which is the most incredible love story ever written. If you do not see that, I implore you to seek the help of the Holy Spirit and read it with new understanding.
I pray that you will see the Cross in the context of God's love for you and that you will know He is worthy of your love and commitment.
Scripture used or considered in the writing of: Choose Love: Understanding God's Heart for You This Easter (2025) by RD Montgomery. All Scripture quoted is in the ESV format unless otherwise specified.
Genesis 17
Exodus 15:11
Deuteronomy 6:5
Proverbs 3:5-6
Isaiah 6:1-5
Isaiah 53:3
Isaiah 55:8-9
Ezekiel 1:28
Psalm 8:3-4
Psalm 93:4
Psalm 143:10
Matthew 6:10
Matthew 9:8
Matthew 13:44-46
Matthew 22:37-39
Matthew 27:27-31
Mark 15:34
Luke 5:9
John 3:16
John 10:16
John 13:35
John 1
1 Corinthians 1:25
1 Corinthians 2:9
1 Corinthians 13:13
2 Corinthians 5:20
Galatians 4:4-5
Ephesians 1:5
Philippians 2:5-8
Philippians 3:20
Romans 5:8
Romans 11:33
Romans 12:2
1 John 3:1
1 John 5:14
Hebrews 12:2
Revelation 1:17
Revelation 3:20
Revelation 19:6-9
Revelation 21:1-4
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