I LOVE THE LORD.

 

APRIL 15.
 
I love the Lord.
Psalm 116:1
 

FRIEND, can you use this language?
 
Do you really love the Lord?
 
If so, why do you love him?
 
The psalmist says,
  “Because he hath heard my voice, and my supplication.”
 
The apostle said,
  “We love him, because he first loved us.”
 
If we really love God,
  it is because we know him;
  because we have applied to him,
    and have proved him gracious;
  because he has shed abroad his love in our hearts,
    and we know that he has loved us.
 
If we cannot say positively that you love him,
  Do you desire to love him?
 
If so, it is a proof that the Spirit
  has been working in your heart,
  for there was a time when you had
  no love to God, nor even a desire to love him.
 
No one desires to love God,
  until the enmity of the heart is subdued,
  the beauty of divine character is perceived,
  and the Holy Spirit has renewed the mind.
 
Enmity cannot love, nor desire to love;
  but the carnal mind is enmity against God,
  for it is not subject to the law of God,
  neither can it be, Rom. 8:7
 
If you cannot say, “I love the Lord,”
   can you not say, --
 

== I long to love my bleeding Lord,

And listening for the gracious word,

Still at thy cross I bow;

Thyself as crucified displayed,

And thus constrain my soul to say,

Thou knowst I love thee now.

 
James Smith 1849