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February 7
RETURNING
GOD'S LOVE
by Ray Prinzing
"We love Him, because He first loved us." (1 John 4:19).
The initial expression
of love is always HIS, He loves us, and this love that is directed
our way, working in us, becomes the cause of our loving Him in
return.
Love unexpressed is love
unfulfilled, unsatisfied. Therefore God has brought forth this
whole creation upon which He can express His love. "For Thy
pleasure they are and were created." (Revelations 4:11).
Furthermore, it requires
an even greater expression of love when the object of that love is
ever so unlovely, unholy, unclean. Hence the introduction of
evil to form the bleak background against which the ultimate of His
love can be portrayed. It was while we were yet sinners that
this expression came to us, for "God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son..." (John 3:16). Jesus is a
manifestation of the Father's heart of love, sent to us when we were
so very unlovely, rebellious, selfish.
Though this Divine love,
so sacrificial in nature, so freely given, is ours to receive, it
remains unsatisfied until it can be returned. Love shared, but
if one-sided, one sharing and other doing all the receiving, this
does not bring happiness. Not that loves requires a return or
a reward for love, but it rests in the happiness of the beloved, and
to receive love selfishly, is to remain unhappy, this the giver
realizes that his love has failed to make the loved one happy.
But when that loved one begins to return that love because it is out
of a heart overflowing with joy and love, it brings joy and
happiness to the heart of the initial lover.
When we are so
completely transformed by His love to us, and so filled with that
love that we must express it back to Him again, then He knows that
His creation is happy with His expression to us-ward, and receiving
that which now flows from us to Him, He shall be satisfied as well.
Love expressed and returned is love fulfilled He truly is
worthy of all our love.
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