Trusting God's Love

 "We love Him because He first loved us."  1 John 4:19

I was reading MacLaren's exposition on the above verse this morning.   He says the correct reading of that verse omits 'Him' without specifying the object of our love.  MacLaren says John is wanting us to focus on our inward transformation and goes on to say:  "When the heart is melted, the streams flow wherever there is a channel.  The river, as he goes on to show us, parts into two heads, and love to God and love to man are, in their essence and root-principle, one thing."  

God's love for us melts our hearts.  The channel through which His love flows into us is Jesus Christ death on the cross.  The channel through which it flows out of us to our fellow man is His resurrection and the receiving of the Holy Spirit.

When I read MacLaren's words:  ".....a simple trust in the love of God, as manifested in Jesus Christ, our Lord, is the only thing which will so deal with man's natural self-regard and desire to make himself his own object and centre.....You cannot love God, unless you believe that He loves you," I thought about the time Peter was on the beach with Jesus soon after His resurrection (John 21:15-17).  Jesus asked Peter three times, "Do you love me?"  Peter answered, "Yes," each time and each time Jesus said, "Feed my sheep."  This is how Jesus wants us to demonstrate our love for Him!  He demonstrated His love for us by dying on the cross for us.  The Holy Spirit demonstrates His love for us by being the means through which God meets our every need.  We demonstrate our love for the Holy Spirit by surrendering our will to Him.

This is why I chose the above photo of sheep huddled in a thicket of dead leaves instead of sheep grazing in a verdant English landscape.  In my photo the sheep had escaped our neighbor's fenced-in property and were eyeing us cautiously as we tried to lead them back through the breach in the fence.  As Christians we are called to love others, whether they are cleaned up or are dirty, even our enemies are to be loved by us!  The only way this can be done is to be channels of God's love because in and of ourselves it is not possible to love unconditionally.  So how do we do this?  

MacLaren explains it in this way:  "When we feel ourselves defective in the glow and operative driving power of love to God, what is the right thing to do?  When a man is cold, he will not warm himself by putting a clinical thermometer into his mouth, and taking his temperature, will he?  Let him go into the sunshine and he will be warmed up.....So do not think about yourselves and your own loveless hearts so much, but think about God, and the infinite welling up of love in His heart to you, a great deal more....therefore, to love Him more, we must feel more that He does love us."

Father, I know it is my pride that prevents me from experiencing the "infinite welling up of love" that You have for me.  May I trust, instead, in your Love rather than in any self-perceived need to let my pride have its way.

Link to scripture:  1 John 2:5

Take Action:  God's Love