Day 16

The measure of our maturity is our love for God & our love for others..
When we love Him first, we will be amazed at how naturally loving others becomes..
Only God’s love enables us to love others truly, including those who irritate us and hurt us, even those we consider our enemies..
The most loving thing we can do for others is love God more than we love them. For if we love God most, we will love others best..
How can you love someone best by loving someone else most?..
It is because of the depth of love and breadth of grace that flows out from you towards others when you yourself are filled with the love of God and all He is for you and means to you in Jesus..
And you know the comparatively shallow and narrow love you feel towards others when your love for God is ebbing (declining)..
There’s a reason why Jesus said the second greatest commandment is like the first: if we love God with all our heart, we will love our neighbor as ourselves (Matthew 22:37–39)..
But if God is not the love of our life, there is no way that we will truly love our neighbor as ourselves. For we will love ourselves supremely..
The reason we will love others best when we love God most is that love in its truest, purest form only comes from God, because God is love..
We are only able to love Him or anyone else because He first loved us. We are only able to give freely to others what we have received freely from Him..
So we see that if we love God most, we will love others best..
The Holy Spirit and our faith which comes from the Word of God converts the love of Christ for us into our love for others..
“And this hope is not a disappointing fantasy, because we can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who lives in us!…” (Romans 5:5)