We love because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19, NRSVue
John Wesley came home from Georgia in 1738 feeling like a failure. His mission had gone badly. His congregation had rebelled against his strict rules. He had spent years trying hard to please God, and he still had no peace.
On the evening of 24 May, he went to a small meeting on Aldersgate Street in London. He wrote in his journal that he went “very unwillingly.” Someone read aloud about how God changes the heart through faith in Christ. Around a quarter to nine, Wesley felt something he had never felt in all his striving. “I felt my heart strangely warmed,” he wrote.
The founder of Methodism did not earn his way into that room. Grace met a tired, discouraged man on a night he almost stayed home.
You may be there today. You may feel you have let God down, or you may feel too worn out to try. Good news: God’s love does not begin with your effort. God loved you before you prayed your first prayer. Wesley spent his life preaching this grace, which goes ahead of us and reaches us before we reach for God.
So start today by receiving. You have nothing to prove this morning. God already knows your name, and God is already glad to see you.
Prayer
Loving God, thank you for loving me first. When I grow tired of trying, warm my heart again. Help me rest in your grace today. Amen.
Today’s step
Before you check your phone, say out loud, “God loved me first.”
The story: How Aldersgate Changed John Wesley, United Methodist Church
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.