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Morning and Evening

June 11, Morning

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"We love Him because He first loved us." — 1 John 4:19 · KJV

There is no light in the planet but that which comes from the sun, and there is no true love for Jesus in the heart but that which comes from the Lord Jesus Himself. From this overflowing fountain of the infinite love of God, all our love for God must spring. This must always stand as a great and certain truth: we love Him for no other reason than that He first loved us. Our love for Him is the fair offspring of His love for us. Cold admiration, when studying the works of God, anyone may have; but the warmth of love can be kindled in the heart only by God's Spirit. How great the wonder that such as we should ever have been brought to love Jesus at all! How marvelous that when we had rebelled against Him, He should seek to draw us back by a display of such amazing love! Never would we have had a grain of love toward God unless it had been sown in us by the sweet seed of His love for us. Love, then, has for its parent the love of God shed abroad in the heart; but after it is divinely born, it must also be divinely nourished. Love is an exotic plant; it does not flourish naturally in human soil and must be watered from above. Love for Jesus is a flower of delicate nature, and if it received no nourishment but what could be drawn from the rock of our hearts, it would soon wither. As love comes from heaven, it must feed on heavenly bread. It cannot exist in the wilderness unless it is fed by manna from on high. Love must feed on love; the very soul and life of our love for God is His love for us. So the believer confesses to his Lord: I love You, but with no love of my own, for I have none to give; all the love is Yours, for by Your love I live—and I am as nothing, and rejoice to be emptied, lost, and swallowed up in You.