Read 1 John 4:19 NIV
We love because he first loved us.
As a Jesus follower I try to live a good, upstanding life. I try to treat others with respect and extend grace because I believe that is how God would have me respond to the people around me. When I read my Bible it affirms what I believe, but if I’m not careful I can allow myself to slip into a “doing” mode. What I mean by that is that I can find myself in a pattern of focusing on what I am doing or what I need to be doing…I need to show compassion, I need to extend forgiveness, I need to practice kindness… and I lose track of why I do those things in the first place.
The simple truth is that all I do, all we do, as followers of Christ, should stem from the humble realization that God loved us first.
His love searches us out – it pursues and redeems us. We are made whole and new because of His great love and it is because of the fullness we experience in Him that we are to love and serve those around us. An overflow of what has been extended to us. It is not by our will power or our strength, or even our resolve to do what is right and good, but by the grace God’s love alone can provide.
I never want to forget that He went first.
