It’s funny to me, because the idea of receiving love has been such a foreign concept to me for most of my life. I don’t think I even actually verbalized the words “receiving love” until maybe a year or two ago.
Why is that? Well, I guess for one I’ve been taught that it’s the giving of love that counts, especially as a Christian. I ought to be loving others, loving those who love me, and even loving those who don’t love me. I’m even called the love those who Jesus calls, ”my enemies” which is an unsettling thought because 1) honestly I don’t have any people in my life I would consider to be enemies and 2) even for those who are not “enemies” but just people who tend to be a pain in the neck or get under my skin, it is definitely not my nautral tendency to love them.
All in all- the call for me to love others is real, it’s vast, and it’s challenging.
And yet it’s not the primary call to love that I have. My primary call to love is to receive love, before I even give it. The apostle John says “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.” (1 John 4:10-11) This is but one example of countless times in the Bible in which God makes his point that He is the initiator of all goodness and love. We as his redeemed and forgiven children are the recipients of that love. And from that standpoint we are called to love God in return, to love ourselves because we’re loved by Him, and to love others too because God loves them just as much as He loves us, among other reasons.
So I ask Why do I love others? On what basis?
John says to the Christians who will read his letter, “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Hmmm…
How well do I receive love from God?
How much do I actually just let God love me as He says He does in His Word?
Am I even taking the time to allow God to love me?
These are all key questions I have to ask myself and struggle with. I’m just starting to realize how important this is for me to do a heart check and address these questions in my own heart.
How well do you receive love from God?
Don’t answer too fast without really thinking about it…. You might be surprised at what you find about yourself.
Just a couple of other q’s to think through on that: How well do you let yourself be loved when you’re weak, or when you fail, when you have absolutely nothing to offer anybody, or when you’ve flat out wronged someone else? How well can you let God love you when you think you’re unlovable?
“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” (1 John 4:9)
I ask it again- How well do you receive love from God?
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