16 We have known and have believed the love that God has for us.
God is love, and those who remain in love remain in God and God remains in them.
Reflection
In today’s third and final installment about the founder of Methodism’s, “Three Simple Rules”, we finish with the last and most important rule: Stay in love with God. Our first two rules were: Do No Harm and Do Good, but today, we incorporate in the importance of having God as a core piece of our being sure we live a life that follows those first two rules.
Staying in love with God can be very difficult, it takes a lot of work of discipline (something we’ll talk about more later in our sermon series). For those who’ve experienced being in love (with a partner, with your family or friends, with yourself, all different kinds of love), know that there are times when that feeling of love isn’t as strong as other times. Just as someone chooses their partner every day, we too are being called to choose God every day and put in the work to respond to the relationship building God longs to have with us. This means prayer, this means journaling, this means meditating, lots of things! The idea is that if God remains at the top of the list for the hierarchy of relationships we have, it doesn’t pull from those other relationships but benefits them.
In this text from 1 John, it talks about how God in and of Godself is love, not just that God offers love, and that God longs to remain in us and that is possible if we put in the hard work to remain in God.
by Rachel Callender
For Pondering & Prayer
Of the “Three Simple Rules” is there one that really does feel simple? Why? Which one definitely does not feel simple?
Prayer: Holy Lord, we long to remain in love with you today and every day beyond. Forgive us when we don’t offer back the relationship building You have offered to us. May we seek You as the center, the starting point for all of our other relationships. Amen.
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