1 John 4:19 We Love Because He First Loved Us.

When we are in pain we too often feel hate because of the pain. We often hate the pain. In our pain we do not love. Our discontent in pain spills over and our relationships are hurt. Our relationships break or become broken. In pain we must exert maximum effort to show caring, compassion, and love toward others. In pain, we so often want to ignore others and focus on ourselves. In our pain we must think more about Christ than about anything else, including our pain. In our pain, we must think more about the love of Christ pouring down from His cross to us as we kneel before Him. We are empowered to love because Christ first loved us. The love of Christ may not take away our pain, but His love empowers us to love in spite of our pain.