LOVE

S: 1 John 4:19 (MSG) – We though are going to love – love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.

O: Our job assignment as believers is to love God and love others.

A: God loved me first when he surrendered his only son to die on a cross for my sin. What greater love is there? God loved me when I was not very loveable. I was not aware of his love because I was so enmeshed in my sin that I could not receive it. I did nothing to earn his love – the wreckage of my past was evidence enough of that. God loved us first. When I encountered the love of God I was changed forever. I had to respond to His love with love. I fell in love with God and by falling in love with God I began to learn to love other people. I am far from perfect at it but when I make time in my life to fill up with God’s love I don’t have to work as hard at it. Last night I spent my evening at the jail in a room full of women I didn’t know and in just a little over an hour I was in love. I didn’t care where they came from or what they had done – I just loved them. That love is not of me but of God. I found myself looking at a woman in jail for murder and all I could see is how beautiful she is. That’s not me. That’s God.

P: Father God thank you for loving me when I was not loveable. Give me your heart Lord that I may love others even when they aren’t the most loveable. Fill me with your love today Lord so that I may give it away freely as it was given to me. I love you Lord. I surrender myself to you and ask you to pour me out today and let your love flow through me.

Today's Reading: Jeremiah 31, 32; 1 John 4