1 John 4:7b "Love is of God." This is the definition of love, God.

1 John 4:10 "In this love, not that we love God, but that He loved us." He loved us long before there was an us. He loved us before there was a beginning of time. Because God is love.

1 John 4:19 "We love Him because He first loved us." When we know Him we love Him.

There is no understanding this love. There is no analyzing or trying to figure out this love.

We accept His love and receive it. Why not? The God of the universe, the God who created the world, the God who created us, loves us. Let us receive His love as freely as He gives it. Freely we receive let us freely give.

Jeremiah 31:3 "The Lord has appeared of to me saying: Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness I have drawn you." His love is so strong toward us that He draws us to Himself.

John 6:44 Jesus said, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him."

Father God draws us everyday to have fellowship with Him. He does the initiating and we respond to His love.

John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son," May I suggest that you replace your name where it says world, and begin to receive a greater knowing of God's love for you?

I have had it said to me, "I just can't feel God loves me?" First of all, feelings will kill you because they will lie to you. The Word of God is our truth and our foundation. We choose to believe His Word and what He says and anything or anyone who says differently is lying. Just simply confess with your mouth "God loves me." You stand on the Word of God and you receive it just as simply as you received your salvation.

Father God did a marvelous thing. He took His love and poured it out on the inside of us.

Romans 5:5 "Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." We have in us His love to be the evidence that God loves us. We also can now love others with His love. Because you are in Christ Jesus you have the love of God in you.

1 John 4:11,12, 13, 16 "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him."

God is love. We are to yield to the love of God inside of us. John 13:35 "By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

We are to act like His disciples.

I was working in a job some years ago in Texas. The office manger at the time was not saved and was in a sinful relationship. She was so depressed and hurt from the choices she had made. I was not close to her at all, but had been praying for an opportunity to speak with her. One day I walked in and she was crying. I just looked at her and the compassion of God rose up in me and I said to her, "You know God is not mad at you and He loves you very much." This astounded her and she said to me, "He's not mad at me?"

This was the beginning of a blessed friendship. She was saved and began an exciting new journey in her life. When she gave her life to Jesus, He fixed and restored the broken life that she brought to Him. Now after many years she still loves and serves God with all of her heart. I am blessed to call her my friend.

Many times God has brought people into my life and I know that He wants me to share His love with them. There was a time when He wanted me to put my arms around a mother who had just miscarried a much-wanted child. As I took her in my arms she cried and cried until there were no more tears, and then the healing of her soul came. Yes it took time to do that, but thank God we were not on a schedule.

May we receive people into our lives with no criticism and no judgement. God the Father may have the opportunity to draw them to Himself when we can let the Holy Spirit speak to us. In these last days let's purpose to be in on the harvest that God is preparing for millions of people to come to know Him. The only way to be a part is to walk in love. Oh the joy that will fill our hearts to be a part of the salvation of others.

Another side of walking in love is to experience joy, power, and protection. When we walk fully in love the devil has no place in our lives. Again lets look at Jesus' life. Jesus walked in love and the Word says in John 14:30 "I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me." Another time when they were trying to take Him, He just walked out and they could not find Him. The devil had no open areas in Jesus life, because He walked in love. The apostle John was another example. They tried to get rid of him and even boiled him in oil. Finally they just put him on Patmos and he received the book of Revelation. John was referred to as the beloved disciple.

What a precious gift we have received in the love of God. 2 Corinthians 2:14 "Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses (manifests) the fragrance of His knowledge in every place." We are vessels full of the love of God and going about pouring on every one He brings into our lives. Wow, what a ministry and what a life!

John 15:11-12 "These things I have spoken to you that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. This is My commandment that you love one another as I have loved you." Jesus wants us to live in joy and He is saying this is how it's done.

John 10:10 "The thief does not come except to steal, kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."

These are promises that are given to us because we are in Jesus. We are to expect good in our lives because we are in Him and He abides in us. As the Word of God resides in us our faith grows and grows.

Ephesians 3:17-19 "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that you being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God."

Romans 8:31,35,37-39 "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?" "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" "Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Father God has taken His love and placed it in Jesus and we are in Him. Know that truly God loves you and His plan is good. The season of your life is in His hand and you can trust Him with everything that concerns you. He loves you.

1 John 4:18 "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love."

2 Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind."

Say this out loud, "God loves me and has a wonderful plan for me. I love God and I do walk and live in His love. Greater is He that is in me. I will not fear because God has given me peace and a sound mind and nothing can separate me from His love in Jesus' name."

Father God I pray for each person reading this lesson. I pray in Jesus name for revelation knowledge of the love that You have for each one. I pray for peace and direction and Your perfect will to be done in their lives. I pray for a hungering to rise up to know more about You through Your Word in Jesus' name.

To the Glory of God,

sheila@sheilaweddle.com