God is Love
by Alan and Clarice Smith 19 March 2023
Read 1 John 4:7-21
This is love: not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 1 John 4:10 (NIV)
Love has been defined in many different ways. One of those ways is that love is something we do. We just love. We make a difference. The apostle John saw it differently. Love, he says, is not primarily something we do, but something God does or is.
Our love is responsive, reactive and reflexive to God’s love. We can forget the idea that love - or anything else - starts with us. It begins with God, who is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
So, here is the great news: We can relax, knowing that love doesn’t originate with us, but comes from an endless, abounding, overflowing, incredible and amazing supply. We can draw on God’s love and let it overflow to and through us. God’s love may lead us to some surprising places and circumstances, but he will already be there.
He has set an example of sacrificial love for us, and because God’s love is sacrificial, we can expect to make some sacrifice as well. We love because he first loved us.
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Prayer
Dear God, teach us to love as you love, sacrificing our own desires for the good of others.
Amen