Encouragement for Today

This is Love

"This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." 1 John 4:10 (NIV)

This is love

• A promise that is kept.
• A place that is certain.
• Someone who asks.
• Someone who listens.
• Someone who is present again and again.

We are loved. We don't have to wait for God to show it. He already has! He sent His Son so that we could know Him in an intimate relationship. Then promised He'd always be there for us, and He is. He is present and listening. Asking and caring. No matter what we are going through today, we can live in His love. And we can love from the overflow of being loved. We can know and rely on God's promises and presence, and be made complete in Him.

Dear Lord, thank You that You first loved us. Remind us and embrace us and pour out on us Your perfect, completing and unfailing love today. As we think of those we love, and the ways we want to be loved, remind us that we are Yours and we are loved! In Jesus' Name, Amen.

Reflections:

• What makes you feel loved by others?
  
• What makes you feel loved by God?
  

Power Verses: 

• 1 John 4:9, "This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. (NIV)
  
• 1 John 4:16, "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him." (NIV) 
  
• 1 John 4:17-19, "God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes athome and mature in us, so that we're free of worry on Judgment Day--our standing in the world is identical with Christ's. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life--fear of death, fear of judgment--is one not yet fully formed in love. We, though, are going to love--love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first." (MSG)