God Loved Us First
OPENING PRAYER:
God, open our eyes and show us your love today and every day.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:7-12
REFLECT:
Throughout Scripture, we can see time and time again that the love of God covers everything. From his correction to his grace, from the moment he spoke light into being to his reconciliation to the ones divided from his presence, the love he showers on his creation is tangible.
We are often reminded that we are created in God’s image. If we are created in his image and he is Love (verse 8), then we were created to reflect that same love. We are created as vessels of the love of the Father.
Verse 12 tells us that God’s love is made complete in us…but only when we love one another. We are reminded, yet again, of the importance of loving those around us. God compels and commands us to do his work and the thing we are commanded repeatedly to do is love.
APPLY:
Spend time today and this week reflecting on how God has shown his love to you and those around you. Name those instances and thank him for them, then make a commitment to use those reflections as fuel for the way that you treat those around you with the love of the Father.
CLOSING PRAYER:
Father, thank you for creating us in your image and for making us a physical representation of your love for your creation. Help us to live and love well.
WORSHIP: