The Gospel in One Word Is Love [1 John 4]

⁷Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  ⁸The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. ¹⁰In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be  the propitiation for our sins.¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.

 ¹³By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. ¹⁵Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

Do I know how loved I am?  The more I get to know God the more I will know His love.  He calls me "beloved" because I have been born of God and I know Him.  Love and God are synonymous - "The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love." How does He show His love?  "By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him."

Today my husband and I celebrate 35 years of marriage. It seems appropriate to think about love, especially God's love that has intertwined our lives.  It has only been as God's love abides in me and His love is perfected in me and that it has spilled out to my husband. I am thankful for God's love that overcomes what I have called love which is really selfish love.  I have come to believe "the love which God has for us. God is love," and I am learning to abide in God's love as God abides in me.

I praise You, God for Your love.  I praise You Father for sending Your Son to be the Savior of the world.   Jesus is the Son of God.  Thank You for abiding in me through Your Spirit.  Thank You, Spirit, for confirming that I am God's child, with the status of a son.  Cause me to abide in Your love and be filled to overflowing with God's love.