Press the play button to watch the video above or press 'more' to read the transcript of the daily devotion below. Please read 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10 (use your own Bible or use the link above to access the in-App Bible).

‘For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you.’

1 Thessalonians 1:4

In her latest album Taylor Swift sings about a brief romance which lasted a fortnight but has forever shaped her life. He has moved on and married someone else, she is still in love with him, culminating in her singing, “And I love you. It's ruining my life.”

I wonder if secretly many of us feel that way with God. We were keen in our early days with Jesus but have since come to wonder if He still loves us. Now we live in the pain of following Him daily, feeling like an unappreciated spouse for a lover who has jilted us at the altar.

The Christians in Thessalonica may have been feeling something of this. We read in Acts 17 that St. Paul had come with the good news of Jesus but had been forced to flee and had never returned to visit them. Had these Christians been his latest love and now he had jilted them? Did God really love them or was it all a fortnight fling?

It is into this heartache that St. Paul gives them the engagement ring of God’s assured love. ‘We know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you’ (v.4).

Are there any more precious words that a wife or husband can speak to their beloved than, ‘I have chosen you.’ It is what we mean when we say, ‘I love you.’ We deeply desire to spend all our lives enjoying that person, and no other.

God says to you, ‘I have chosen you.’ With all our flaws and in all our messiness, He chose us. He surely calls us to turn from our idols and follow His ways, but He chose us not because we loved Him, but because He loved us.

If you struggle to know the love of God in your life, spend this Advent remembering the coming of Jesus. He who loved us so much, that despite our sin He left the comfort of Heaven for the agony of a Cross. That is the engagement ring He gives you because He has chosen you.

Let us pray: Father, thank You that You have chosen me. May I deeply feel the love that You have for me. Amen.

The Revd Lloyd Etheridge, Assistant Curate, St Andrew’s, Leyland.