In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us…
— 1 John 4:10

It was very hot outside, and I was seeing my mum off on the bus. Two minibuses were standing at the stop. The smaller one was first in line, and the bigger one stood a little further on. Mum said: “I’d like to go on that one, the roomier one; it’s so stuffy. I really don’t like these cramped ones.” A couple of minutes later the driver came and told everyone to get into the roomier bus. Seeing her off, I said to her with a smile: “Your prayer has been heard!” She answered: “My granddaughter did tell me that God loves me.” I remembered how 12 years ago, when we came back from America, my daughter Anya used to tell her grandmother: “Jesus loves you.” As I was leaving the stop, the Spirit of God told me that this is the simple gospel in three words. Oh, if only we simply believed this wonderful truth, the Lord would solve the problems in our lives — both the big ones and such “insignificant” ones as having a comfortable ride.

I remember once sitting in a chiropractor’s waiting room. This was a few months after I came to faith through a preacher on television who preached about the goodness of God. In the waiting room there was a toy that reminded me of my childhood. It was called a “magic screen” — under a glass screen there was aluminium powder. I picked it up and began to draw, or rather write: “JESUS LOVES YOU”. A week later, at my next appointment, the doctor asked: “Was it you who wrote that on the toy last week?” I said: “Yes.” She answered: “Thank you so much! I’m going through a hard time in my life right now, and I really needed that.” Thank God that at that time I was not yet attending any meetings, and nobody had washed my brain with sin, God’s judgment and all kinds of scare stories; but the Spirit of God, even when I had not yet read the Scriptures and understood little about faith in God, was guiding my hands.

One can say and write a lot about God’s love, but John, the apostle of love, expressed its essence very clearly: it is not about our love, but about God’s love for us, and when we simply believe this very simple but very powerful truth, the Spirit of God begins to work miracles in our lives, for the Spirit of God bears witness to the truth. Then our love for one another will not be some effort of the flesh, an appeasing of conscience or the keeping of God’s commandment, but the result of our faith and of personal revelation of God’s love for us.

In the next verse John goes on: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (1 Jhn.4:11) Often only the second part of this verse is taken into account, and the emphasis is put on the word ought. Once the Spirit of God explained to me the meaning of what is said. He showed me with the example of the sun that if the sun warms so strongly, then a stone ought to give off warmth. You see, it’s not about the stone but about the warmth of the sun. It’s the same with God’s love! The greater our revelation of the love of God and of Christ for us, the higher our “temperature” of love, and then this love warms not only us but also spreads to those around us.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your strong and warm love for me. You love me simply and without conditions. You Yourself said, and the Spirit of God has testified, that You remember my sins and my lawless deeds no more, and nothing stops You any longer from showing Your love in my life through Your blessings. Spirit of God, reveal to me more of the unconditional love of Christ, and tear down all the religious strongholds that keep me from seeing and receiving Your love in all its fullness. Amen!