God Loves You More

God says he loves you more than the birds, more than the moon and stars, more than you can imagine.  Listen to Matthew West as he expresses these truths in his powerful song “More.”

Image by Pablo Heimplatz, provided by Unsplash via Wix.

A few days  ago, when I was driving home from dropping off my youngest son at the airport, my playlist cued up Matthew West’s song “More,” which describes God’s attitude toward us:

I love you more than the sun

And the stars that I taught how to shine

You are mine, and you shine for me too

I love you yesterday and today

And tomorrow,

I'll say it again and again

I love you more

Is it true?  Does God really love us that much?

The Bible is very clear about the immensity of God’s love for us

God loves you more than the birds.  Jesus points to the birds and then tells us in Matthew 6:26, “Are you not of more value than they?” 

God loves you more than the moon and stars.  Psalm 8 says, “When I see your heavens, the work of your fingers, / the moon and stars that you set in place – / What is man that you are mindful of him….  Yet you have . . . crowned him with glory and honor” (Psalm 8:4-7, NABRE).

All of creation gives glory to God by its existence, and God loves his creation.  The birds, the animals, and the stars do not bear God’s image as human beings do.  God chose to make us in his image.

God loves you more than you can understand.  In the Letter to the Ephesians, Paul prays that we may “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:18).  Jesus’s love is beyond what we can comprehend with our minds.

That’s what the Bible says: God loves you.  More.

Matthew West’s song “More” captures what God is thinking about us

Matthew West’s song reminds us of the depth of God’s love.

• You can listen to the song here and let God speak to you through Matthew West’s words.

• And you can read the full lyrics here.

The Scriptures cited above show us that it is appropriate for Matthew West to assert that God loves us more than the sun and the stars.  Because God loves us so much, we can have confidence that he is always with us, as the song goes on to say:

I am with you wherever

Where you go is where I am

And I'm always thinking of you

But when God is thinking of us, what is he thinking?  The Christmas song “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” says, “He sees you when you’re sleeping / He knows when you’re awake / He knows if you’ve been bad or good / So be good for goodness sake!”  I think many of us transfer to God that image of Santa Claus watching us to see if we do bad.  This makes many people uncomfortable with the idea that God may be thinking of us.

Matthew West seeks to assure us that God loves us in good times and in bad – even when we sin:

I love you, yesterday and today

And you belong to Me

And I want you to know

That I'm not letting go

Even when you come undone

. . .

I love you, yesterday and today

Through the joy and the pain

I'll say it again and again

I love you more

I love you more

God knows we are imperfect, yet he persists in loving us.  Even when we mess up, even when we fall short, even when we come undone, he does not walk away.  He loves us so much that, from the very beginning, he has had a plan to save us from our self-centeredness and help us love others brilliantly, as he does.

And I see you

And I made you

And I love you more than you can imagine

More than you can fathom

I love you more than the sun

And you shine for me

Shine brightly by doing good for others

Those final lines of the song put a catch in my throat.  He loves us more than we can fathom.  And he keeps asking us to shine for him.  We are meant to be more than just recipients of his love; we are meant to shine his love to others.

Jesus tells us to “let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16, NRSV).  When we put love into action to do good for others, it gives people a glimpse of the love God has for them.

Jesus delights that we shine for him, because he loves us more than we can imagine.

May you accept God’s love in the depths of your heart.  And may the good you do for others shine brightly and bring glory to your heavenly Father!

Listen to Matthew West’s song here.