John 15: 9, 13-17 (NIV) - “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit-fruit that will last-and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.”

This love began with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is love (Greek - agape). We are made in the image of this eternal God who is this self-giving love and from whom this sacrificial love flows. This is why we look for all kinds of love. But once we enter/receive this saving love of God through Jesus, we hunger and ache and want this love - in Christ, for it is who we are. This love is truly irresistible. The disciples who followed Jesus and witnessed this greatest love were changed! They knew they had been found by the greatest love! They finally knew who they really were and this love changed them forever! Have you been found by this greatest love? Do you know this greatest love? Have you opened yourself up to God to be vulnerable before Him to experience a brokenness that is the deepest and most secure love? Have you experienced God flowing into your heart with seeming turmoil only to find that everything is put into God’s good order? This love is the journey we want, for it takes us into the very heart of God. This is the real love that we want. This is the love we want to taste every day!

Today consider this in prayer: There is no greater love than this - to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

-GK