Living Loved

"God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world…This is real love." I John 4:9 NLT

Apart from God, "the heart is deceitful above all things" (Jer. 17:9 NIV). A marriage-saving love is not within us. A friendship-preserving devotion cannot be found in our hearts. We need help from an outside source. A transfusion. Would we love as God loves? Then we start by receiving God's love.

We preachers have been guilty of skipping the first step. "Love each other!" we tell our churches. "Be patient, kind, forgiving," we urge.

But instructing people to love without telling them they are loved is like telling them to write a check without our making a deposit in their accounts.

No wonder so many relationships are overdrawn.
Hearts have insufficient love.
The secret to loving is living loved.

Originally printed in A Love Worth Giving by Max Lucado