God's Love

1 John 4:7-10, 16
v7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
v8 Whoever does not love does not know God,
because God is love.
v9 This is how God showed his love among us:
He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.
v10 This is love: not that we love God,
but that He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
v16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

Verse 7
The only reason we are able to love another person is because God loves us. Our love for others is fueled by Him, by His love for us. Many people claim to know love, but only those who know the Father really know and understand what love is.

Verse 8
God IS love. The root of everything He does is love. To know God is to know love.

Verse 9-10
We can know and understand this love because of Jesus. Because of sin, we were separated from His love. But because of our acceptance of Jesus' sacrifice, we are perfect before God's eyes - we can see His love.

It's not our doing - it's not that we love Him, or we choose Him. He loved us, and He chose us long before we were even born!! We are the responders, not the initiators of love!

Verse 16
Because of God's love - we have hope. It will never change - He has promised it to us. We can rely on it even more than the air that we breathe. Because we have accepted His love and know His love - we can rely on it and know it will never change!

Remember your FIRST LOVE today! The Lord of all creation, the God of the universe, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords - is running after you. He pursues you. He desires YOU!!! Take a minute to really think about that, and as God reveals His love for you - understand that HE LOVED YOU FIRST and say, "I love you, too!"