Love #3

I will start this post with a story. Jesus is teaching:

"A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?"

Simon answered, "The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt." And Jesus said to him, "You have judged rightly."

Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven--for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little."

The lesson God has been teaching me this last couple of weeks is one that I think is also apparent in this passage. It is one that I have been learning BIG TIME. It is this:

Love comes first out of a yearning for it.

Jesus says in this story that obviously the one who loves the moneylender more is the one who has been given the most by him, which was the one who had the bigger debt. He was given the bigger gift because he had been freed of the bigger debt.

Then, as Jesus refers to the woman who had kissed his feet, He says that she loves much because she had been forgiven of many sins. Then he says "But he who is forgiven little, loves little."

Basically, I can some this story up in one sentence: The more that we recognize our need for God, the more we will grow to love Him.

And I have definitely been learning this.

The more that I realize my NEED for God in my life, the more that I can actively love Him and others around me.