Secrets of the Abundant Life – The Circle of Love

1 John 3: 1- 5 (NIV): How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.

The most wonderful, powerful, joyful, unspoiled force in the universe is the love that God has for us. In Isaiah 49:16, God says, “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” Paul says nothing can separate us from God's love, and you know what Jesus said about God's love in John 3:16. John says God has “lavished” his love on us in today's passage. God loves us with an unselfish, unconditional, sacrificial love and it literally makes the world go round.
One of life's mysteries is why God loves us so much. We certainly don't deserve it, but he “rejoices over us with singing” Zephaniah 3:17 says. He loves us like a truly good father loves his children.
So, the third secret of the abundant life is to realize how much God loves us, then love him back. Micah 6:8 tells us that what God wants from us is to walk with him. Jesus said the first commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, quoting from Deuteronomy 6:5. If we want to live the abundant life, it will begin with loving God with all of our hearts. We will begin to have the wonderful feeling that we are fulfilling our purpose. Our life will have meaning and we will have a joy we never knew before.
But it must not end there. The fourth secret of the abundant life is loving each other as we love ourselves. When we love others with a sacrificial, holy love, and put their needs ahead of our own, we will begin to truly live. We will find ourselves in a wonderful circle of love and we are well on our way to living the abundant life.