\u201cWe love him because he first loved us.\u201d -1 John 4:19<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is no light in the planet but that which proceeds from<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the sun; and there is no true love to Jesus in the heart but<\/p>\n\n\n\n
that which comes from the Lord Jesus himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From this overflowing fountain of the infinite love of God,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
all our love to God must spring. This must ever be a great<\/p>\n\n\n\n
and certain truth, that we love him for no other reason than<\/p>\n\n\n\n
because he first loved us. Our love to him is \u201cthe fair<\/p>\n\n\n\n
offspring\u201d of his love to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cold admiration, when studying the works of God,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
anyone may have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the warmth of love can only be kindled in<\/p>\n\n\n\n
the heart by God\u2019s Spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How great the wonder that such as we should ever have<\/p>\n\n\n\n
been brought to love Jesus at all! How marvelous that<\/p>\n\n\n\n
when we had rebelled against him, he should, by a display<\/p>\n\n\n\n
of such amazing love, seek to draw us back. No! never<\/p>\n\n\n\n
should we have had a grain of love towards God unless it<\/p>\n\n\n\n
had been sown in us by the sweet seed of his love to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our love, then, has for its parent the love of God shed<\/p>\n\n\n\n
abroad in the heart: but after it is thus divinely born, it must<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cbe divinely nourished\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Love is an exotic\u2013 it is not a plant which will flourish<\/p>\n\n\n\n
naturally in human soil, it must be watered from above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Love to Jesus is a flower of a delicate nature, and if it<\/p>\n\n\n\n
received no nourishment but that which could be drawn<\/p>\n\n\n\n
from the rock of our hearts it would soon wither.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As love comes from heaven, so it must feed on heavenly<\/p>\n\n\n\n
bread. It cannot exist in the wilderness unless it be fed by<\/p>\n\n\n\n
manna from on high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Love must feed on love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The very soul and life of our love to God is his love to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI love you, Lord, but with no love of mine,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For I have none to give;<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I love you, Lord; but all the love is yours,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For by your love I live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am as nothing, and rejoice to be<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emptied, and lost, and swallowed up in you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Christ has our love\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Christ has our love he has our all; and Christ never has what<\/p>\n\n\n\n
he deserves from us, until he has our love. True love withholds<\/p>\n\n\n\n
nothing from Christ, when it is sincerely set upon him. If we<\/p>\n\n\n\n
actually love him, he will have our time, and he will have our<\/p>\n\n\n\n
service. He will have the use of all our resources, and gifts, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n
graces. Indeed, then he shall have our possessions, and our<\/p>\n\n\n\n
very lives, whenever he calls for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the same way, when God loves any of us, he will withhold<\/p>\n\n\n\n
nothing from us that is truly good for us. He does not hold<\/p>\n\n\n\n
back his own only begotten Son, Rom.8:32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When Christ loves us, he gives us everything we need\u2013 his<\/p>\n\n\n\n
merits to justify us, his Spirit to sanctify us, his grace to adorn<\/p>\n\n\n\n
us and his glory to crown us. Therefore, when any of us love<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Christ sincerely, we lay everything down at his feet, and give<\/p>\n\n\n\n
up all to be at his command and service. \u201c\u2026they did not love<\/p>\n\n\n\n
their lives so much as to shrink from death.\u201d Rev. 12:11.
Spurgeon <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWe love him because he first loved us.\u201d -1 John 4:19 There is no light in the planet but that which proceeds from the sun; and there is no true love to Jesus in the heart but that which comes from the Lord Jesus himself. From this overflowing fountain of the infinite love of God, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-c-h-spurgeon","category-gods-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5541,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5540\/revisions\/5541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}