Loved part 3
Knowing that you are loved is what allows you to love. Because love is never about getting. Love IS giving. And you can't give what you don't have. You can only give what you do have. 1 John 4:19 says, "We love him, because he first loved us." And in the NLT it says, "We love each other because he loved us first." We loved Him BY loving each other. But we CAN love Him by loving each other, only because He first loved us. And that's what I want to focus on today. HIS love for US. Which, as I mentioned yesterday, can seem a little bit selfish at first. Because being Christ-centered (instead of self-centered) really means being people-centered. And you know I've preached and Ranted many times about how if I take care of you... and you take care of me... then neither one of us has to take care of ourselves. But I don't think that's very easy to do--maybe even it's IMPOSSIBLE to do--if you put "worry" into the equation. The best definition I ever heard for "worrying" is, "Praying for what you DON'T want." And I think that's how we get into trouble a lot of times. We are worried about things that haven't even--and probably won't even--happen. We worry about what we (think we) haven't got. And, understandably, we try to get it. We look for love in all the wrong places. Because we don't know and believe that we already have it. This, I truly believe, is the biggest problem mankind has. We don't know that we are loved. Which means we CAN'T love each other because we're too busy trying to get love. We're too busy robbing ourselves of what we've already got to experience it and enjoy it. To give it away. To share it. So, really, focusing on how much our heavenly Father loves us is not selfish at all. It is the opposite of that. Look at the New Commandment (for a New Man): "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" (John 13:34). We love with the love we are loved with. Hurting people hurt people. But loved people love people. When Jesus said to love one another AS HE has loved us... He wasn't just telling us TO love. He was telling us HOW to love. And notice the past tense there, "As I HAVE loved you." God always has and always will love you. He IS love. There's nothing else He could possibly do. His love is MEANT to fill us to overflowing and to come out naturally. But it starts when we fill ourselves with what we've been filled with. When we apprehend what we've been apprehended of. If you know what you've got, you can give it away. Once you receive it... you can release it. So strenghtening yourself in the Lord, building yourself up in faith, is not selfish at all. Because love is too big--and too good--to keep to yourself. The more you have, the more you can use. The more you ARE loved, the more you CAN love. So in order to love one another AS Jesus has LOVED us... we have to know the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of His love for us. We have to know what we've got. And in knowing (and believing) we receive it... and release it. But it comes FROM Him. And then it comes THROUGH us. We ARE loved, so we CAN love!