The word love appears close to 600 times, in the King James Bible, with additional references in other translations. The word makes reference to God himself being love. “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.” (1 John 4:7) Jesus also encourages his disciples, to love one another, which was a demonstration and evidence to the world, that they are his disciples. (John 13:35)
Jesus also referenced the greatest commandment being to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and the second greatest being; love your neighbour as you love yourself. (Matthew 22:37-39) Why then does God, make so many references to love and stresses, the importance of us loving others? God made such a huge sacrifice for us, in laying down his own life to save us from our sins. There is no extent to which God will not go, to demonstrate how much He loves us.
Contrastingly the Devil will spend a lot of time, trying to convince us that we are not loved by God. It is the condemnation strategy that he uses, to bring about fear and torment. But we know that fear is not from God, because fear has to do with punishment. But the perfect love of God drives away all fear. (1 John 4:18)
Someone who knows that they are loved by God, will find it easy to love others. When we accept the grace of God, then we can also extend this to others. If you are finding it difficult to love someone, pray for them. Pray that you will also accept the perfect love of God, to loose the grip of fear. We do not have to fear being accepted, because God accepts us. He loves every single imperfection, flaw and loves us in-spite of our weaknesses. So accept God’s perfect love, so that you can extend his love to others.
A.P.-Y.
Devotional Inspirations 