Good morning,
The gift of God’s love!
When God created the world, it wasn’t an experiment. When God created the world he did it as an expression of his love for the people who would be given life on our earth and who would have the opportunity to choose to accept and trust his love. God knew that a hate filled heavenly being would try to claim the earth as his own, and that the people who would fill the earth would have the choice of believing lies and living hate filled lives or put their trust in a loving God that they could not see. What we see at the foot of that rugged tree was the gift of God’s love for all those who would live on His earth. The proof of God’s love for us is, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (Jn.3:16) When Jesus came 2,000 years ago he didn’t come to to destroy, he came in order that the world might be saved through him. (v.17) For all of us who are willing to trust and obey God’s loving plan for our lives we discover at our heart level that, God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.(1Jn.4:16) What God is telling us is that God is actually living in us as we go through life a day at a time. Our Father and Savior and the Holy Spirit are not just around us, they are living in us. The other good news is that even though we are God’s children and we still struggle with sin and fear and anger, as we live in God, our love grows more perfect.(v.17) So long as we live here on earth, we will always have the privilege of knowing and growing and living life more and more like Jesus did when he lived here on earth with us.
Another of the benefits of God’s holy love is, we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.(v.17) Not only will we be able to look forward to an eternity with God in our future but also live life on a daily basis because Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear.(v.18) None of us ever get to the perfect stage here on earth, but God’s perfect love grows us day by day to trust His love more and more and our fears and pain become less and less our masters. Another benefit of this love is that,We love each other because he loved us first.(v.19) This gift from God is so powerful that even though we will never find anyone who has stopped sinning in God’s family and in the world around us, His genuine love will will cause us to, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. (1Pet.4:8)
There is one other thing that we must remember when it comes to loving others. Our Enemy has his own forms of love, but they will always fail. The proof will be that their love also allows them to feel that they have the right to hate others and, that person is a liar; for if we don't love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see?(1Jn.4:20) Thank you Lord that your gift of love is stronger than any hatred that we will ever face here on our sin filled world.
1 John 4: 19 We love each other because he loved us first.
Roy Wisner
