Day 1
Why We Love
by René SchlaepferWe love because he first loved us.— 1 John 4:19 (ESV)
One of my role models is the famous pastor, author, and college founder D. L. Moody. His stale Christian life came alive in the late 1800s when he heard a revival preacher speak on John 3:16 for a solid week! Moody remembered:
I never knew up to that time that God loved us so much. This heart of mine began to thaw out; I could not keep back the tears. I just drank it in... I tell you, there is one thing that draws above everything else in the world, and that is love.
That revival preacher then encouraged Moody to study nothing but love in the scriptures for several weeks. Moody said:
I took up that word love, and I do not know how many weeks I spent in studying the passages in which it occurs, till at last I could not help loving people. I had been feeding on Love so long that I was anxious to do good to everybody I came into contact with!
I got full of it. It ran out my fingers. You take up the subject of love in the Bible! You will get so full of it that all you have to do is open your lips, and a flood of the Love of God flows out!
That is exactly what I pray happens to you and me as together we spend the next 40 days studying love! I hope you begin to see every person you meet (including yourself!) as an object of God's passionate love.
And as our church becomes more loving, it will grow as people are attracted to the love of Christ. As Moody said:
The churches would soon be filled if outsiders could find that people loved them when they came. This love draws people!
Just like D. L. Moody, I encourage you to start your study of love by first focusing on God's amazing love for you! This week, every devotion is about the love we receive from God. Let yourself soak in those Scriptures, and love for others will come flowing out!
Question to Consider
When is it hard for me to believe that God unconditionally loves me? Why?
Prayer
Lord, thank You so much for Your unending love for me, love so vast that I can\
