Thursday, January 10
God First Loved Us
He pursued us first. The Scriptures define love in the following way: “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the substitution for our sins.” (I John 4:10). Also, the Scriptures declare, “We love because He first loved us.” (I John 4:19) Our attempt to understand a life that genuinely pursues God will be hindered unless we first consider how God has pursued us.
God has loved us; we should love one another (1 John 4:11). No pure expression of love would exist if God had not first initiated love. Love is His nature. Love was His motivation to create. Love was the motivation for a covenant with Israel. This love was made complete and absolute when God, in a specific time in history, gave His Son to become a substitute for you and me on the cross. He did this so that we might find life from death, light from darkness, and freedom from sin’s bondage. Therefore, the motivation to pursue God is as old as God’s first act of creation, and as sincere and powerful as Calvary’s cross: God’s love. This, I believe, is a beautiful mystery. How can a Holy God demonstrate a love that is creational, covenantal, and redemptive all at once? The answer, although mysteriously complex, is rather simple and fundamental: He is love.
Today, receive the simplest truth you could ever glean from God’s Word: God is love. Although the simplest, this truth is the most powerful. Allow this love, fully unconditional and totally unmerited by you or me, to ignite a desire to seek God with all your heart every day, every moment, and every breath. He is the lover of your soul. Herein is love for you: God first loved us and gave us His Son to die for our sins that we might become one with God. What a love? In response to so great a love as this, pursue Him.
1 John 4:7-21