Where does the knowledge, the desire, the motivation, and the wherewithal to love God come from? Was it a choice I made? Did I finally figure things out? Not likely. As my kids would say, my attempts to love God = FAIL. You see, I didn't even attempt it. I was concerned about loving myself. So how was it I came to love God?
We love because he first loved us. (1 John 4:19 ESV)
I love because He first loved me. His love opened my eyes to know that I should love God and how I should love God. His love gave me the desire and the motivation to love Him back. His love gave me, and gives me, the wherewithal to love Him.
In his work The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, Walter Marshall addresses how the duty of love is found in us writing, "... the duty of love cannot be extorted and forced by fear, but it must be won, and sweetly allured by an apprehension of God's love and goodness towards us ... ."
God won my love and allured my affection by loving me first!
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