Know And Be Aware Of His Love
15 Anyone who confesses (acknowledges, owns) that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides (lives, makes His home) in him and he [abides, lives, makes his home] in God. 16 And we know (understand, recognize, are conscious of, by observation and by experience) and believe (adhere to and put faith in and rely on) the love God cherishes for us. God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him. 1 John 4:15-16 Amplified Bible
We learn in verse 15 that those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God dwelling in them, and they in God. Then verse 16 speaks to us regarding that love. It says that God is love and since we know He dwells in us and is love, then His love dwells within us. Verse 16 even says that we know and believe he loves us. Most of us would say this is just self-evident, obviously, God loves us, now let’s move on. But the reality is most of us may understand these words, but our words say that we don’t really believe those words are true for us.
If you listen to the very words that come out of your mouth you may be surprised to find you are not so certain that His love dwells within you. It sounds good and we are taught that conceptually, but that does not mean we fully believe it.
How often have you said the words out loud (or even in your thoughts), “If God really loved me, why did this happen?” This reveals we are not so sure of His love. We are supposed to “know” His love and that means to understand and be aware of my experience. To “know” means to understand this fully and completely.
We think that if something bad happens it is because the Lord somehow allowed it. Jesus is good and would bring nothing bad upon you, but there is an enemy of your soul who does bring bad things. It says further that we are to “recognize” His love. Most of us miss this altogether or confuse our kind of love for His kind of love. Recognize that His love is not like ours, it is unconditional and you can always depend upon it.
We are also told to be “conscious” of His love. Are we? Do we think about His love throughout the day? If you were thinking about His love you would know it because the response to that awareness would be spontaneous praise to Him for His unconditional and total love for us. When was the last time you “conscious” of His love in this manner?
This is the key, we need to know and be conscious of His love when we can do that, focus on the certainty of His love, we will then really begin to “observe” and “experience” it in our daily lives.
J Todd Hostetler