To be loved...

In order to give something away, you have to receive it first, right?  You can't give something away if you don't first possess it.  

I wonder if this is the same way with love.  

I recently heard President Bush talk about his faith.  He talked about this very thing.  He mentioned something to the fact that he read the Bible everyday to try and be a good Christian and stay close to God.  But he said that he was missing something.  As essential as reading the Bible was to his spiritual growth, he wasn't truly comprehending what it meant to have an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.  He discovered that when he let the LORD love him, and when he realized that Jesus Christ is the LIVING God, then he discovered who God really was.

I really thought about this.  

Reading God's Word can be transforming for me when I read it with the truth that God loves me unconditionally. 

Wow!

Reading the Bible, or praying, or worshipping, becomes more than just "doing". They become ways where I can learn and experience God's love. 

"How great is the love the LORD has lavished on us."

1 John 3:1

And it is only with His love that I can have the power and grace to love God, others, and myself. 

Afterall, isn't that the greatest commandment?

"Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind...Love your neighbor as yourself."

Matthew 22:37