Daily Encouragement: Day 313

Adapted from Handbook to Spiritual Growth

THE MOTIVATOR OF UNMERITED DIVINE LOVE

The Bible is clear that God’s love for us is always previous to our love for Him: “We love, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). The security and significance of God’s unquenchable love gives us a basis for responding with love for God and expressing that love in tangible ways through acts of loving service to others.

In His Upper Room Discourse Jesus said, “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love” (John 15:9–10). There is a mutual relationship between abiding in the love of Christ and keeping His commandments. When we dwell in the sphere of His unmerited love, we begin to see that His commandments are not burdensome but liberating. Abiding in His love, we become more inclined to obey Him not only because it is in our own best interests, but because it is pleasing to Him.

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