Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
With One Grand Exception since Eden, every human soul has been born with a heart empty of love (agape). Only Jesus in the stable in Bethlehem was agape in human flesh because He was God in human flesh, and "God is agape" (1 John 4:8). We all need our empty, naturally self-loving hearts to be filled with agape. "The love of God [agape] has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us" (Rom. 5:5). There is nothing the Holy Spirit likes to do more than "pour" agape into empty human hearts!
In 1 John 4 the righteous are the ones who "know God," and the wicked are the ones who are "not of God" (vss. 6, 8). It's clear: our final exam when we "appear before the judgment seat of Christ" will consist of one question--have you learned to love with agape (2 Cor. 5:10; 1 John 4:7)?
It's interesting that a few years ago on the eve of Valentine's Day, the media reported scientific findings that a broken heart can kill. The usual cause of a broken heart is love betrayed, leaving a person bereft, forsaken, and hopeless. It was His broken heart that killed Jesus on His cross when He cried out, "My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matt. 27:46).
But being forsaken in human love is not really the problem: it's the awful fear of being forsaken by God also (it's very real!). If you have suffered a disappointment in love, stay close to the cross of Jesus.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 14, 2005.
Copyright © 2016 by "Dial Daily Bread."
