| “We love Him, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). |
| When I was young, a brother used to remind us, “Never try to love the Lord any more than you do! Just think of how much He loves you!” This was good advice for us, for sometimes we feel guilty for not loving the Lord more than we do. The answer is to enjoy His love, and then our love will flow back to Him as a result. |
| Perhaps some of you have sung the hymn, “I am so glad that our Father in heaven, tells of His love in the book He has given,” etc. This hymn was written by a man named Philip Bliss, who lived back in the 1800’s. He was a gifted hymnwriter and wrote quite a few good hymns. He did not live to be an old man, for he and his wife were killed in a train wreck in Ashtabula, Ohio, U.S.A. when he was only thirty-eight years old. But it is interesting how he came to write this hymn about which we are speaking. |
| He was putting together a hymnbook and was using not only many of his own hymns, but also hymns written by other people. He wanted to use the hymn, “Oh, how I love Jesus, oh how I love Jesus, because He first loved me,” and reserved a place and a number for it in his hymnbook. But since the man who wrote that hymn was still alive, out of courtesy he contacted him, asking permission to use his hymn. To his shock and surprise, the author of that hymn flatly refused, saying that he was also making up a hymnbook, and did not want anyone to spoil the sales of his hymnbook by using his hymn in another hymnbook. |
| Mr. Bliss went away very sad, not only because he could not use the hymn, but mostly because the other man was using sacred things like hymns to make money. But now he had to find another hymn to fill the place in his hymnbook. As he walked home, he began to think of how the Bible does not speak mostly about our love to the Lord, but rather speaks about His love for us. God does not want us constantly to be thinking about our love for the Lord Jesus, but to enjoy His love for us. Then he sat down and wrote the hymn, “I am so glad that our Father in heaven, tells of His love in the book He has given.” That hymn took the place of the other one, and talks about God’s love for us. The chorus goes like this, “I am so glad that Jesus loves me, Jesus loves me!” If we do not feel as much love for the Lord as we would like to have, once again the answer is to think about how much He loves us! |
