How Have You Loved Us? (Malachi 1:1-5)

Malachi opens with God saying "I have loved you," and Israel firing back, "How have you loved us?" It's the question we ask too. When the evening doesn't go how we pictured it, when scrolling makes everyone else look more loved than us. Austin Pfeiffer looks at our spiritual distress coming from measuring God's love by present circumstances instead of remembering His record. God chose Jacob before he'd earned or lost a single point and he has done the same for all those in Christ. Malachi underscores that the love holding us was never ours to win or lose. SMALL GROUP QUESTIONS: Where do you catch yourself asking God "how have you loved me?" — and what circumstance are you using to measure his love? Malachi points to God's covenant choice of Jacob "before he'd done anything." How does election change the way you keep score of your own failures? Where in your own history has God already shown up — one concrete thing you can name when the "how have you loved me?" question returns this week?