We love because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19 (NIV)
I was wearing myself out thinking that I had to do a good job loving and caring for everybody so that God would love me. I was way off. It wasn’t until I let God love me first, until I actually experienced the Perfect Love of God, that I was able to do a good job at loving and caring for others. When we put things in the correct order, it can change everything.
1. We free others up to do a better job loving us. In other words, when we need something only God can give, but we have been looking for it from our other relationships, we put impossible pressure on those people. We expect Perfect Love from imperfect people.
2. We can love others as they are, not as we want them to be. When we have accepted the grace of God - that while we are still sinners, He loves us - then we can begin to extend that grace to others and love them as they are – imperfect, like us!
3. We can love because we are loved – not so that we will be loved. Our love becomes a free gift, not something with strings attached to it. We can love people who are hard to love, because we need nothing back from them. If all we get are harsh words and criticism or even just a blank stare, we can still love them because we get the love and acceptance we need from God.