the Third Week after Easter
Click to donate today!
Daily Devotionals
John Gossner's Treasury
I will love thee, Lord, my strength. Psalms 18:1. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:8-16. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. Matthew 22:37.
You desire to be loved by your brother, your children and friends, not in words only, but in deed and from the heart. Should God be satisfied with a love of the lips, which is no love at all, but only a tinkling cymbal? No: he who knows the kind mercies of God, the love and grace of Christ, who sacrificed Himself for us with body and soul and all His powers, does not hesitate to surrender himself so completely with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his powers, to the love of God and of Jesus Christ, that he retains nothing for himself. He belongs completely to his God and Savior, lives and dies for Him, forgets himself, and becomes filled with God, filled with his Savior, and breathes, walks and stands, watches and sleeps, works and rests, only for Him. Nor is it the reward, the sweetness and delight, which love even here carries with it, nor fear nor hope, nor punishment nor reward, nor loss nor gain, that impels and animates love. It is only love, pure love, that causes love to love. It is the inner beauty, glory, goodness, matchlessness and loveliness of God and of Jesus Christ, that awakens the soul to love, sustains it and evermore increases love. The more it learns to know Him, the more it learns to love Him. Its eyes are ever turned toward Him; it is ever in God and God is in it; it ever dwells in Christ, and Christ ever dwells in it. They ever regard each other, and are thereby kindled to greater mutual love. Love increases in proportion as the knowledge of the beloved increases. Therefore St. John says so truly, "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. " He who knows Him must love Him. A look to God, to Christ, charms the soul to love. The soul can no longer do otherwise, it must love Him; He is too beautiful, too delightful; the heart knows not how to avoid loving Him.
Teach me all Thy steps to trace.
Strong to follow in Thy grace;
Learning how to love from Thee,
Loving Him who first loved me.
