I love the verses from 1 John 4:7-10 in the New Living Translation because they speak to my heart. They reinforce that fact that we can know God!
As a teenager in school, two teachers told me that there is no way anyone can "know" if there really is a God. I did not grow up being taught about God, but I knew He was real.
A few years earlier when I was contemplating suicide, I called out to Him for the first time, and I felt the amazing power of His love surround me and ease my pain. After that I began to seek Him, pray, and read His Word. I looked for people who were hurting and being mistreated. I found that a simple hug, or word of encouragement motivated by the love of God causes people to hope, smile, trust, gain strength and courage, and begin to heal broken hearts.
There was a girl in that school who was schizophrenic. People constantly put her down, walked quickly past her, and scratched terrible notes about her on the desks. No one listened to her or talked to her with any respect, only disgust and contempt. She always smelled like urine and her hair was very thin from falling out or from her pulling it. If I had never experienced the agape love of God, I may never have done a thing.
God began to urge me to reach out to her. I purposely found every rotten message on a desk about her and smudged it out. I even wrote something nice over it at times. Then I found every opportunity I could to give her a hug and spend time with her to encourage. If I heard someone try to hurt her, I cut them off and changed the subject. By the end of the year I witnessed the love of God working in her! Some of her hair even started growing back!
It wasn't until later that I was told of the sad chain of events that caused her to become schizophrenic. She had not become that way until after her father abused her at a young age. The love of God through Jesus Christ has the power to set us free! There is no teacher then, now, or ever that will convince me that you can not know God!
This is how 1 John 4:7-10 in the New Living Translation encourages me; that even when people say you can't know God, they can never overpower the love God gave us through Jesus' sacrifice! As God has loved us, we can now know Him and also love! And His love in us changes lives! God's love is agape. He knows every heart and everyone's story. God's love made me sensitive to others and continually compels me to want more of Him and to let His life and love flow out of me. I know His love is powerful enough to protect and conquer evil.
What the Holy Spirit is teaching me in this scripture is what real love is. God's love is that He loved us first. He didn't need fifty reasons first. Because He IS love! And that He sent His own perfect and beautiful Son as a sacrifice for our ugly sins! That is so powerful!
What I am learning from this passage is that being "right" is not important anymore, because I don't have a righteousness of my own anyway! What is important is that I love the way Jesus loves because it will point people to Him, and He can take away their sins!
The way 1 John 4:7-10 applies to my everyday life is that it makes me think about how I am treating others, especially the ones who are "hard" to love. To portray the character of God, I must love them first! I must lay down my rights, pride and my life for them. This is how God's love took away our sins.
The Bible also says love covers a multitude of sins. It was out of His mercy He forgave me and His love that He accepts me! I am His child and I want to apply this scripture to my heart every day so others may know Him too! Every day I want to know and recieve more of His love. I want to always be prepared because you never know when laying your life down for someone will save a life! I might be in the most unlikely and difficult place, but it is the most eternal thing we can do here. To love one another!
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Name: Sage Marie Dickinson