By David ReayTuesday 20 Sep 2022LifeWords DevotionalsDevotionsReading Time: 2 minutes
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. (NLT)
So often we figure that our greatest problem is that we don’t love God the way we ought. In fact, the primary problem is that we don’t fully appreciate just how much God loves us. God’s love for us is the first or primary love. Our love of him and others is the secondary love.
Realising how much we are loved frees us to love God and others. Trying to draw love from those who feel rejected, outcast, uncared for, is like trying to get blood out of a stone. I will give little thought to loving someone else if I see myself as unloved. But a loved person is able to be a loving person.
A dog that has been badly mistreated will likely strike out at those who come near. It lacks trust and is governed by fear. If I feel unloved, I will lack the energy and the will to give love to others. Or perhaps the sort of “love” I offer them is little more than a desperate attempt to get some skerrick of love for myself.
Knowing I am loved gives me security and significance. The God who loves me not only commands me to love but also empowers that love. I can be free of the nagging thought that I am unlovable, free of the fear I have no love to give.
The love we offer to God and others is not some natural attribute of our own. It is a sharing of the overflow of the love poured out on us by our lavish lover in heaven.
Blessings,
David