LEARN TO LOVE GOD FOR HIMSELF ALONE

By A. W. Tozer
 

We love him, because he first loved us.  -  - 1 John 4:19

      The phrase, "the love of God," when used by Christians almost always
refers to God's love for us.
We must remember that it can also mean our love for God!

      The first and great commandment is that we should love God with all
the power of our total personality.
Though all love originates in God and is for that reason God's own love,
yet we are permitted to catch
and reflect back that love in such manner that it becomes our love indeed!

      The Christian's love for God has by some religious thinkers been
divided into two kinds -- the love of
gratitude and the love of excellence.  But we must carry our love to God
further than love of gratitude
and love of excellence.

      There is a place in the religious experience where we love God for
Himself alone, with never a thought
of His benefits.  There is, in the higher type of love, a supra­rational
element that cannot and does not
attempt to give reasons for its existence--- it only whispers, "I love!"

      In the perfection of love, the heart does not reason from admiration
to affection, but quickly rises to the
height of blind adoration, where reason is suspended and the heart worships
in unreasoning blessedness.
It can only exclaim, "Holy, holy, holy," while scarcely knowing what it means.

      If this should all seem too mystical, too unreal, we offer no
proof.  But some will read and recognize the
description of the sunlit peaks where they have been for at least brief
periods and to which they long often
to return.  And such will need no proof!
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Yours in Christ,
Paul N. F.