A MAN told his minister that he was worried because he didn't feel he loved God.

The minister replied, "When I go home at teatime I will lovingly nurse my baby son although he hardly knows anything about loving me! If I was broken hearted, he wouldn't lose any sleep over it! If I were racked with pain he would still gurgle with joy! If I Sacrificed everything to feed and cloth him, he wouldn't thank me! But I don't wait for him to do something worthy of my love before I love him!"

"Oh, I see," said the man, through his tears. "It's not my love for God but God's love for me that I ought to be thinking about."

"Exactly," said the minister, and the apostle John put it like this. "This is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the sacrifice that takes our sins away." (1 John 4:10)

The minister went on to say that we should each read the Bible and remember God's amazing grace and love in sending his son to pay the penalty I deserved. We can then ask God to melt our hearts so that we begin to hate our sins that cost Jesus his life's blood.

As God answers this prayer we will want to turn away from evil and begin to follow Christ. Once we do turn then this saying of Jesus will come true: "He who knows my commandments and keeps themis he who loves me..."

In other words, the best way of knowing that we love God is when we want to obey his commands and then the more real he will become to us. (John 14:21)

Rev David Jebson