Let Him Love You

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" (Matthew 23:37)

Jesus so longed to care for His people Israel, and yet they refused His love.

Even today, sadly, Christians still think that God is someone whom they must serve, especially if they want to be loved, to be cared for.

Nothing could be further from the truth!

Jesus, the great King who came down to minister to us all, announced Himself:

"For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45)

Notice that Jesus came to minister.

We in turn minister to others--when we allow Him to serve us:

"We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19, NIV)

We need to repent of this mindset, that we must do something for God to love us.

That is crazy!

Paul wrote:

"But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

We were sinners, and yet God loved us enough to send His Son for us!

We didn't love God, we didn't care about God, and yet He loved us.

John the Beloved writes:

"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:10)

Love begins with God, and it was manifested to us in that He Sent His Beloved Son to die for us -- and that through Jesus we would live! (1 John 4:9)

Consider further what we see in the Luke 15 parables.

The sheep repented, in that he consented to be carried,

The coin repented, in that it consented to be found.

The son repented, passing from death to life, in that he consented to be loved.

That's all you need to know!