Eight Words that Will Forever Change Your Life!

Eight Words that Will Forever Change Your Life!               

The eight words in I John 4:19 forever changed my life over 40 years ago:  “We love God because He first loved us.”

In a few short words, the apostle John reveals to believers the truth that eluded the Pharisees and Bible scholars in Jesus’ day.  Sadly, it is still a mystery to many today.  The cry of every religion around the world is all the same, “You must love God!” but the gospel declares that God loves us and He loved us first!  What an awesome thought that we are the object of His amazing love and continue to be because His is love (I John 4:8).  

If God loved us first, then that means we did nothing to earn or deserve His love.  To believe that God does not love you is to accuse Him of not being truthful.  Don’t allow your emotions or past failures and history to make you feel disqualified from knowing and experiencing the love God has for you.  God used a murderer to write most of the New Testament and another to give us the law.

God doesn’t demand we love Him first;  the truth is, we really can’t love God the way He deserves to be loved until we know and believe in the love He has for us. Our ability to love God doesn’t come from our own human effort or even praying and asking Him to help us love Him.  We should pray that he will help us to understand how much He loves us as this will cause our love for Him to increase.

 Let’s turn 1 John 4:19 around and make it personal: “Because God first loved me, I now can love Him!”  

If you believe God loves you just the way you are at this very moment, you are perfectly capable of loving Him.

                                           Ed Elliot