B3 – The Lord Wants Me To Love Him
“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ…” 2 Peter 3 vs. 18
“We love Him because He first loved us” 1 John 4 vs. 19
Do you ever feel so lonely and wish you had a special friend? A friend who could be with you all the time and love you unconditionally?
Well if that is the case, the good news for you is that the Lord Jesus Christ wants to be your special friend! Just think about it, the one who is the King of Kings, greater than all the leaders on earth knows you personally and wants to be your friend. He knows everything about us. He knows our sinfulness, our weaknesses, our sorrows, our troubles and everything good or bad and yet He still loves us.
The Lord Jesus Christ also wants us to love Him too. In this lesson, we want to explore three reasons why we should love the Lord Jesus Christ.
We must love the Lord Jesus because He loves us
The Bible says,
“We love Him, because He first loved us.”1 John 4 vs. 19.
What do you do when someone loves you? Your love for that person also grows, is that not so? In another passage of Scripture, the Lord says,
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness I have drawn you.” Jeremiah 31 vs. 3.
The Lord Jesus loves us so much that He wants to draw us nearer to Himself. There are so many other verses from the Bible which tell us about the love of Jesus Christ. That is why we also should love Him. He gave us His wonderful promise:
“If anyone loves me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him and We will come to him and make our home with him.” John 14 vs. 23.
The Lord Jesus makes His home in the hearts of those who truly love Him. He lives with us. That is why only He can be our special friend. He will take care of us and comfort us when we are sad. If we have done something wrong, He will forgive us the moment we confess our sins to Him.
We must love the Lord Jesus because He died for us
We have already learned in our previous lessons that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins on the cross. The Bible says that, “While we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Romans 5 vs. 8. He did not have to die for us, but because of His great love for us He went willingly to the cross and died instead of us.
Jesus once said these words: “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” John 15 vs. 13. But the Lord Jesus did not only die for His friends. He died for me and for you.
He died so that we could have everlasting life. This should cause us to love the Lord Jesus Christ with all our hearts. Every day we must thank Him for dying for us. We must remember that He is our greatest friend and we must do everything to please Him.
We must love the Lord Jesus because He gives us joy
Finally we must love the Lord Jesus Christ because He is our source of joy and true happiness. What do you do when someone you love, perhaps you little brother or sister falls over and begins to cry? Well, you would pick him or her up in your arms and try to comfort them until they feel better and begin to laugh again. Why do you do that? You comfort them because you love them, and you want only happiness for them.
That is exactly what the Lord Jesus wants to do for us. He said in the Bible,
“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” John 15 vs. 11.
The Lord Jesus wants you to be happy.
It is true that sometimes you will feel pain, sickness or troubles in the home. But when you tell the Lord Jesus about it, He will give you comfort and restore your joy. He will help you overcome all your problems and as your special and greatest friend, He will never abandon nor disappoint you.
Only those who have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior can experience this joy and happiness in their hearts.
This is because the Lord Jesus Himself is the source of this joy and He gives His joy as a gift to those who love Him.
Do you want to have this joy? The secret to having this joy is to thank the Lord every morning for His love for you. Thank Him for dying for you. Thank Him for everything including your meals, your clothes and all the good things you receive from Him. Tell Him you love Him and that you want to live only for Him and please Him.
If you do that faithfully, He will give this joy that He spoke about in
John 16 vs. 24: “…ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
Here then is a summary of those things we have learnt in this lesson, the three reasons for loving the Lord Jesus Christ:
– We must love the Lord Jesus because He loves us.
– We must love the Lord Jesus because He died for us.
– We must love the Lord Jesus because He gives us joy.
Your memory verse for the day is:
“We love Him, because He first loved us.”
1 John 4 vs. 19
Next Steps
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