Reckless Love

Pastor Mike Novotny

Musician Cory Asbury struggled to understand what God was like. But things changed when Cory had a son. Whenever he held his baby, he felt a love like nothing he’d felt before. And when he realized that his kid hadn’t done anything, hadn’t earned it, hadn’t worked for it, Cory finally got the heart of God. He grasped the God who would do anything—climb a mountain, kick down a wall, plunge himself into the darkness—for the sake of just one person.

One day Cory wrote a song that became a favorite in many churches—“Reckless Love.” It’s about God’s overwhelming and never-ending love. Love that can’t be earned or deserved. That’s the kind of love Cory felt for his son. That’s the same love our Father feels for you.

Some Christians wondered if reckless was the right word to describe God’s love. After all, God isn’t foolish or reckless in his decisions, right? Cory responded with Jesus’ story about a good shepherd. “If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?” (Matthew 18:12). Unconcerned with his own comfort or safety, willing to face a wolf or lay down his life for one sheep, Cory believed he had chosen the right word.

Thank God for that kind of love. Thank God that Jesus cared more about us than he did about himself. Thank God for the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for us, a display of his overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love.

Devotion used by permission of Time of Grace®. For more information, visit timeofgrace.org