Today’s Encouragement is, “Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.” 1 John 4:11-12 NLT
If We Love –
I admit, and perhaps you feel the same way, I recoil when I hear the words “should, ought, and must.” My flesh screams back, “No one tells me what to do!” (God’s word doesn’t care that I am offended!). Instead, I must decide to accept what He says, laying aside my human bias, and believe that He really does know the Truth and reveals it to me through His word and through Jesus.
But this verse makes sense, doesn’t it? “Since God loved us, we surely ought to love each other.”
And so does the following Truth – that because God loves us, His Love lives in us and causes us to Love each other. And our Love for others… does something eternal, amazing, supernatural… it brings His Love – to full expression – in us!
This must also mean that when we refuse to love others, God’s Love is not brought to full expression.
It seems His perfect plan is for us to receive and accept His perfect Love, then for us to Love Him, and also to Love others with His perfect Love, so that they can receive Love from us and from Him. No one-way streets here. But His Love flows to us and from us.
Father, how can we thank You for Your Love, Your perfect plan for us? Help us to be so filled with Your Love that we can freely Love each other and You.
Love God, Love People
Danny Gokey
Today’s Encouragement 