11^th October 2010

SEEDS FOR HARVESTING 5/38

Proverbs 8:17
"I love them that love Me; And those that seek Me early shall find Me."

Our love for God must be an ever-enriching experience.
It must be continually growing within us.
In our daily living we must seek for examples
of how much He loves us.

The words "I love them that love Me",
can sound as if God is saying that He loves us
because we first loved Him.
But this can be as far from the truth as we can imagine.
John with deep personal conviction proclaims,
"We love God because He first loved us."

For as long as I live I shall never be able
to fully plumb the depths
of the meaning of these words.
The famous words of John Wesley during worship in 1738,
"I felt my heart strangely warmed,"
just begins to express this wonderful fact
that God really does love me.

The Psalmist's words, "Those that seek Me early shall find Me",
should fill our hearts with joy.
Here the word "early" is important..
This becomes our first joy from which everything else flows.
.Our consciousness of sin
and need for forgiveness
grows out of the all powerful experience
that God first loved us.

Jeremiah proclaims God's Word that
"I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with loving kindness."

Bob Imms 10.10.10