If you’ve never received love, how can you love others? In other words, we can’t give what we’ve never received. But oh how we try! Our typical strategy? Try harder. “I don’t care how much it hurts, I’m going to be nice to that bum.” So we try. Teeth clenched, jaw firm.
Could it be we’re missing a step? Could it be that the first step of love is not toward them but toward Him? In 1 John 4:19 (NIV) the apostle writes, “We love, because he first loved us.” Long to be more loving? Then consider how you’ve been forgiven. Paul said in Ephesians 4:32 (NIV), “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
We want to. We long to. But how can we? By living loved. By following the principle: receive first, love second.
