His Great Love

HIS GREAT LOVE.

“Not that we loved God, but that He loved us.”- 1 John iv. 10.

As the precious balm of Gilead, or the cassia and sweet calamus of the holy anointing oil, so came these blessed words into my dull and aching heart this morning. Dear Lord, I thank Thee for them; Thou hast taken them from Thine Own Book, and spoken them to me with Thy living, loving voice, and they have quickened me.

     I had brought to Thee, with shame and sorrow, a hard and insensible heart ; I could only groan out before Thee my utter lack both of faith and feeling. The very desire to love Thee seemed to lie fettered and power-less within me, only an occasional struggle revealing its bare existence. Then, Lord, while I knelt in Thy presence, with bowed head and troubled spirit, tears and sighs my only prayers ― Thou didst whisper those sweet words in mine ear, and they brought light and liberty to my captive soul. Blessed be Thy dear Name for this glorious deliverance! It is not my poor, cold, half-hearted love which is to satisfy and comfort me; but Thy love, great, and full, and free, and eternal as Thyself! Surely, had known this before, Lord; but I had shut myself up in unbelief till, in Thy sweet mercy, Thou didst speak the Word which released me from my bonds, opened my prison doors, and let me out into the sunshine of true peace in believing.

     “Not that we loved God.” No, and that is the sad wonder and mystery of our unrenewed life, dearest Master. Not to have loved Thee, is our greatest guilt and shame. It was even worse than this with us, for we were enemies, by wicked works, to Him who claimed the most ardent and grateful love of our souls; we had put ourselves in an attitude of defiance against our best Friend ; or if not openly defiant, we were totally forgetful of Him to whom our heart’s allegiance was justly due. “NOT that we loved God.” Ah, dearest Lord, Thou knowest how deeply, sadly true this was of me, and how I mourn over the years spent without love to Thee, and at a distance from Thee! O hard heart, O blind eyes, poor dull sluggish soul, that could be unmindful of the strivings of God’s Spirit, could deliberately neglect the pleadings of a Savior’s love, and see no beauty in One who is “altogether lovely!”

     “But that He loved us.” Here is a blessed contrast, here is the antidote for sin’s sting, here is light after darkness, hope after despair, life after death! Lord, my soul flings itself on this glorious fact, this saving truth, as a drowning man seizes upon life-belt thrown to him in the surging sea! If Thou dost not love me and lift me, I must perish for ever. But there is no question of sinking when Jesus saves, no fear of losing life when He loves.

     O my Lord, how I thank Thee for this precious Word upon which Thou hast caused me to hope! Now, all the day long, my heart shall sing over the safety and blessedness of being freely loved, instead of fretting about the sad lack of my poor love to Thee. “Not that we loved God” is darkness, and bitterness, and death eternal; but “that He loved us” is light and pardon, peace and everlasting life.