When we think of God, what comes rushing into our minds? Is God the first awakening thought when we arise from sleep in the morning? Is He the last thought upon our minds when we go to sleep at night?
If He is, which of His qualities are contained in those thoughts?
Three prevailing qualities come to mind: Holiness, Goodness, and Love.
The next quality we will address is LOVE.
LOVE
1 John 4:7-8: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Love is God standing in relation to all of us, fulfilling His relations with all of us in accordance with the first and supreme demand: That He cares for all of us, that His thoughts and interests are not centered in Himself but go out with full sincerity and unselfish devotion to those with whom He cares for – us, His Creation. That doctrine proclaims not a self-centered God, but an outreaching God. It tells of One Who comes forth to us, His creation, not capriciously or calculatingly but with the impulse to which belongs the warmest Name that our experience has taught us to give to an affection.
That Name is Love.
We are familiar with love in human life – a passion and an affection, a longing and a mighty sacrifice, all in one. It is an unselfish affection, a free outpouring of one’s best for another’s sake. Love prizes its objective so highly that it cannot rest without possession, and at the same time so highly that it cannot withhold any service or blessing, any gift or sacrifice. It is love and love only that understands how it is more blessed to give than to receive.
God feels our worth, He longs to do us good, He desires our fellowship in a love that returns His own, He longs to impart Himself to us in a mutual affection and His longing toward us is an impulse of self-sacrifice for our sake.
Let us recognize God’s overwhelming love for us and mirror such outreaching love to others by emphasizing the act of giving rather than the act of receiving.
That is true love that emanates from our Father in Heaven.
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