Theme for week: Loving the Lord
November 3, 2021 Wednesday)
God’s love for us holds great power over us. It compels us to love God and our fellow human beings. It will not release us from this holy obligation. God’s love has hold of us and will not let us go. I can decide not to eat meat today and I will probably succeed in accomplishing my intention. But if I think I can decide today to renounce loving God and others, I will discover that God has His powerful hand upon me and forbids my doing that, even for one day (or one hour). And so we sing, “O love that will not let me go.”
“We know how much God loves us because we have felt his love and because we believe him when he tells us that he loves us dearly. God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is living in him. And as we live with Christ, our love grows more perfect and complete; so we will not be ashamed and embarrassed at the day of judgment, but can face him with confidence and joy because he loves us and we love him too (1 John 4:16-17 TLB).
O LOVE THAT WILL NOT LET ME GO
Words, George Matheson
Music, Albert L. Peace
1882-1884
O Love that will not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.
O Light that foll’west all my way,
I yield my flick’ring torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.
O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.
O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.