We love because He first loved us.

Hey guys, I’ll be doing the reflection for today. I’ll just quote this passage from an article real quick to help me out.

Life is all about love.

But love started with God. He loved us first, and that gives us the ability to love others (1 John 4:19). The only reason you can love God or love anybody else is because God first loved you. And he showed that love by sending Jesus Christ to Earth to die for you. He showed that love by creating you. He showed that love by everything you have in life. It’s all a gift of God’s love!

I pondered upon that verse and thought how could my ability to love others come from God’s love? Other people who are not Catholics has the ability to love. Then I remembered the time I walked away from God because I thought I was failing Him and did not deserve His love. So I decided to close my heart from God. That lead to like the lowest point in my life. I was a complete mess. Every time I tried to show my love to someone I was immediately worn out. It became difficult to love others and myself included. I started to despise anything and everything, even God, whenever I reached a certain level of fatigue. I lost interest in everything, I felt dull and lifeless.

I only realized I was worthy of God’s love again when I was prayed over during one of our camps. Since then I have slowly started to open up my heart to him and I feel a part of myself slowly coming back to life. I started loving myself again started trying out new things and discovered many things about myself. I thank God for that because I think that is His way of showing me my purpose in life. It felt great and rewarding in giving love to others too. That is all I can sort of understand from my experience.

Maybe sometimes we try to love others and we don’t really get that love from them in return. But it is absolutely okay! As long as we share the love God gives us and continue to ask God for His love you would never feel worn out because God’s love is endless. Asking for His love empowers not just you, but the people around you. Sharing God’s love through simple acts of kindness can make a difference to others. I also think that is what God has intended for us. So I urge you to just open up your hearts, and let God love you for who He meant you to be. Amen.

Thank you for reading. Cheers!We love^[a] because he first loved us.

– Louis (23 March 2017)