by Robert Fudge

Have you ever noticed how some people just seem to always be nice and kind and considerate toward others. They are always polite and helpful. Then there are some people that are harsh, short or even hateful to everyone. We usually say that is just their nature or that is “just the way they are.” We serve a God who has a nature that is described in I John 4:7-12:

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Notice John does not say that our God is loving. He says that our God is love. Love comes from our God. The ultimate demonstration of love is seen in our God. He does not just love because we love Him but he shows His love first.

His love is shown toward us in the giving of His one and only Son, Jesus. Jesus gave His life as a substitute sacrifice for the sins that you and I have committed. He gave what I could not give, a perfect life to God. What does God ask in return from each of us? He asks that we first and foremost love Him above all else in our lives and in our world. He then asks us to show that love to Him by showing love to each other. If we think about it, that sure makes good sense. We have been re-created in His image through Jesus and are learning to be like Him.

Thus as we have God living in us (v.12), His love is made complete in us. That means that we now have His love (His nature) as a part of our nature. It then becomes natural for us to love each other. The more we truly love those around us that don’t deserve to be loved, the more we truly appreciate the love of God that we don’t deserve.

I would like to challenge each of us today to demonstrate love toward someone. Send an e-mail to someone to encourage them. Make a phone call to someone who is shut in. Send a card to someone who is hurting. Visit someone who is lonely. Compliment someone who is disheartened. Encourage someone who is feeling inadequate. Pray for a friend and then tell them you are praying for them. I think you will find that sharing your love (not just going through the motions but really from the heart) will lighten your load, give you peace and help you to be a happier person. Interesting how that the more we become like Him the more we actually enjoy life and want to love others more.

O God of love, please fill my heart with your love so that it overflows to all who I come in contact with today. May Your love be seen in me in all that I do and say. Make me to show Your love in my attitude and in my actions. Help me to use that love to lift the load of someone around me. Help me to show love, not only to those who love me, but to those who are unloving so they will come to know your love through my love. I thank You for Your love shown to me through Your Son, Jesus Christ. It is in His name we offer this prayer.

Have a loving day.