Hi, my name is Sarah Crockett and I’m part of the GOD TV team, and I’d like to welcome you to God Today. Today, I want to talk about God’s love. It’s a really big, huge subject, but I want to hone in on one verse in 1 John 4:19. You ready for this? “We love because he first loved us.” “We love because he first loved us,” and you know, I don’t know about you, but for me for so long, I was so good at giving. I can show up for other people and I can love them. And I actually started to have this revelation, like, oh, if I don’t actually get love first, I’m actually not loving others as well as I could be.
I thought I was very loving, but we love because He first loved us. And so if you want to be a better husband, a better wife, a better friend, a better brother or sister, or coworker, and you want to love, you want to fulfill the Great Commission. What is it? To “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul, and love your neighbor as you love yourself.” That’s a lot of love going on. Love for God and love for your neighbor. But even in that verse, it says, “love your neighbor as you love yourself.” Well, how do you love yourself? We love because He first loved us. And so the neat thing about that, it starts with God loving us, and that’s counterculture to today’s society, and to the world. The world is like, take, what can I get? What can I get? And the Kingdom of God is like, let me give. Give love. You know, it’s like, if somebody hates you, it’s like turn the other cheek. That doesn’t make sense, but it’s the Kingdom. And if you’ve applied the Word of God, any part of the word of God in your life, it will work. Isaiah 55:10-11 talks about the Word of God not returning void, and it will accomplish what it’s set for.
And so I believe today, as you’re listening to this God Today, that the Word is, “We love because He first loved us.” And so I just want to pray for you in that sense, that the answer that you’re looking for in the things outside of yourself, the breakthrough, the freedom, the provision, the healing, the comfort, the joy, to get out of hopelessness. The answer that you’re looking for is to let God love you more. We love because He first loved us. And so I just want to pray for you. Holy Spirit, would you teach us how to let you love us? Would you teach us how to receive your love? I just release an increased capacity for you to receive the love of God, and that He would just expand your heart and open your heart to receive His love in new ways and deeper ways, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.