| 1 John 4:7-9 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. Love comes from God. We have to admit that God is love, and we need God's love. 1 Corinthians 13:4 says: "Love is patient; love is kind." This kind of love doesn't come from mankind. People may be able to tolerate, but their love is not patient, but patient with a certain limit, just like Peter. Once he asked Jesus: "If another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?" To him seven times is enough, but the Lord told him not to forgive seven times, but seventy times seven. Of course the Lord didn't mean that seventy times seven, which is four hundred ninety times, is enough. We can lose our temper on the four hundred ninety-first time. Definitely not! The Bible says that love is patient and it must come from God. We need to be aware of what is lacking in our heart. We might think that we can love and be patient. But once the circumstances start to change, we will find out how much we are in lacking of patience and love.
The Lord said: "how I love you" to refer to so much love of the Lord we have experienced. You can't love others with the love of the Lord until you experience the it. Very often we don't have enough love for others, because we have never really experienced the love of the Lord. In the parable of the prodigal son, both the older and the younger sons knew that their father loved them. But who really experienced the patient and kind love of the father? The younger son! He didn't experience the love of the Lord until he felt that he was not worthy, and admitted that love came from God and he need to receive God's love.
May the Spirit lift us up again. Many people we meet in the church feel angry at God, and they always complain and criticize. The only reason why they do that is because they have never really experienced "the patient and kind love". Since we are separated from God, we cannot enjoy the love among us. We need to return to God and admit that love comes from God. And we need to receive God's love now. Pray with Pastor Tong Liu 
Lord, we pray specifically for those brothers and sisters who have bitterness and grief in their heart. May you help them open their heart and receive your love today. Jesus, may you fill them with your patient and kind love, and set them free from all kinds of bitterness and grief. We thank you and we pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen! |
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