Fear No Fear

“We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19, MEV). This really hit me this morning. I wasn’t reading First John, but as I was thinking on the truth that I love God it hit me that the only way I am able to love Him is that He loved. I thought about my kids – we recently had a birthday – and how much they do automatically that they ONLY do because we taught it to them. They show fiscal responsibility because they were taught it by their mother. They also do goofy dances and are allergic to taking life too seriously because they were taught it by their mother. Who knows what kinds of people they would be growing into if they didn’t have that soil of competence and dorkishness to grow out of? I know I wouldn’t recognize them. God planted us in His love. God created everything out of His love. The ‘unseen’ that we came from, look to, and exist in, is His love. I am GRATEFUL that He LET me love Him. I have had glimpses of what my life would be like if I didn’t have the opportunity to love Him. I am GRATEFUL He gives EVERYONE this opportunity. My prayer is that more and more of us take Him up on the offer. That more and more of us CHOOSE to love Him back. Who take up His banner of Love and first represent it, and then wave it for others to see. The graciousness and mercy of this GIFT to us will boggle your mind. But the TRUTH of it never fades. The sheer JOY of loving Him and being willing to minister to Him out of our love for Him is too good to pass up. And we get to do that because HE loved US, DOES love us, and WILL ALWAYS love us. He is AMAZING in that love, isn’t He? He is SO GOOD to us.