Jesus’ Command to Love Teaches Us a Lot about Thankfulness

On a trip to a third world country for mission work, I witnessed believers living Paul’s words to the early church out loud in prayer every day. They didn’t just thank God for the way they had seen Him move in their lives already, they thanked Him in advance for the ways He was going to move in direct relation to what they were currently praying for. “When we give thanks to God in prayer, even when it’s hard to, we are promised comfort and provision for our needs,” this article explains.

Love God. It’s the most important countenance of our hearts. Scripture is full of what happens when we put God first, and warnings of what happens when we don’t. Who He is reminds us who and Whose we are. In the greatest love story of all time, God sent His only Son to save us. He is love. Godly love is selfless love. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church:

Godly love is grateful for the status quo, which is drenched in the grace and mercy of God. He sees us, whether we are faithfully following Him or we are a mess of confusion, and He loves us. “The most loving thing we can do for others is love God more than we love them,” John Bloom wrote for Desiring God. “For if we love God most, we will love others best.” Love is impossible for us to uphold without the strength of God in our everyday lives. Even when we seek Him daily, our sinful nature gets in the way of executing love this way. But Scripture is adamant we love God and love each other this way. Jesus repeated the Old Testament command:

The selfless love of Jesus was displayed on the cross, and it was for all of us. “God doesn’t put qualifiers on his love and the truth is his love is always ahead of ours,” Clarence L. Haynes Jr. explained. “Our response is always to the love that he has shown us first. In fact, if he didn’t love us first then we would have no capacity to love him back.”

The command to love teaches us the importance of thankfulness. Out of a heart overflowing with gratitude for the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross, and never-ending love of God, we obediently love God, and each other. When others thank us for our self-less love towards them, we get to point to the One from whom our ability to love selflessly comes from. The purpose of our lives is to love God, and love people. He is faithful to place others around us to listen to, and love well.

More from this author
3 Ways David’s Song of Praise Helps Us Pause and Thank God for All He Does
Powerful Truths to Help Us Turn Worry into Thankfulness
Don’t Lose Your Sense of Wonder

Photo credit: ©Getty Images/Aaron Amat

Meg writes about everyday life within the love of Christ at megbucher.com. She is the author of “Friends with Everyone, Friendship within the Love of Christ,” “Surface, Unlocking the Gift of Sensitivity,” “Glory Up, The Everyday Pursuit of Praise,” “Home, Finding Our Identity in Christ,” and "Sent, Faith in Motion." Meg earned a Marketing/PR degree from Ashland University but stepped out of the business world to stay home and raise her two daughters …which led her to pursue her writing passion. A contributing writer for Salem Web Network since 2016, Meg is now thrilled to be a part of the editorial team at Salem Web Network. Meg loves being involved in her community and local church, leads Bible study, and serves as a youth leader for teen girls.