Day Four

by Dallas Schmidt

“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

The Quest Study Bible defines love as “wanting good to come to another person; being concerned and willing to work for another person’s benefit.” When I think about what love is and how I have experienced it, I feel happy. I have genuinely had wonderful examples of love in my life–from my family to friends to people I hardly know. One of my greatest examples of love is the way my husband responded when I was unexpectedly diagnosed with a life-changing disease. Love is selfless and means putting yourself completely aside for someone else. It also means loving someone always, no matter what unplanned surprises come.

Love is also reckless. As Cory Asbury sings, it is never-ending and fights for you even when you don’t feel that you are worth fighting for. This perfect type of love can only be shown fully by God. This is not a love that we can imitate, although we try. We pale in comparison to showing the love to others that God shows to us. God loves us so much that he sent his Son to Earth as a baby to eventually die for our sins. Those sins are us breaking the rules that God gave us, but he loves us anyway and invites us to be his children even though he knows that we will make monumental mistakes.

God loved us before we ever loved him, and he loves us even when we don’t show him love. His love is never-ending and does not come with stipulations for his children. We can love someone, but when that person makes us mad, we don’t show love quite as strong as when we are happy with that person. Thankfully, God’s love doesn’t decrease when we do something that should make him angry with us.

This Advent season, I pray that you are able to recall the greatest love that you have been shown, and know that while earthly love is amazing and life-changing, the true love that God has for us is the greatest gift we could ever receive. I pray that you embrace God’s love and in turn show that love to others. I also pray that, if you have not already, you give your heart to God so that you can fully experience his never-ending love.

PRAYER

Lord, help me to remember that I am first loved by you. Help me also to be able to love others as an example of you. Thank you for your constant and unwavering gift of love.