Open Heart Challenge Day 5

The Love of God

“What is it that pries open a hardened heart? What enlarges and softens the most shriveled of human souls? What is the most desirable, the most delicious, the most joyous above all to the soul? That is easy to answer. It is being flooded with God’s love. Being awash with His profound acceptance and glory; being encircled and comforted and healed and set free to go and do. When we feel His love for us, we are instantaneously flooded with love for Him, and vice versa. We cannot have one with out the other. No wonder it is always simply and profoundly stated as ‘the love of God.’ Sometimes the scriptures even seem to indicate that Jesus Christ Himself is the love of God. Of course! The Savior would be the physical representation, the incarnate expression of God’s love for us. And our acceptance of Him and our profound gratitude for His atoning sacrifice would be the ultimate expression of our love of God the Father. The love of God is the heart of Christianity, the centerpiece of Salvation, and opening our hearts to receive and give it is our daily opportunity. Elder Groeburg said, ‘God’s love fills the immensity of space, therefore there is no shortage of love in the universe, only in our willingness to do what is needed to feel it.’ Yes the wonder of it all is that God loves us all the time, however our ability to feel His love comes and goes. It seems to be dependent on many things. By covenant, He promises that when we keep His commandments we will have His spirit to be with us. When I don’t feel His love, am I failing to claim the blessings that are mine? I think so” (Ibid.)