People want to be loved by others. In order to be loved, it is necessary to love first because love is expressed in action (John 14:15).
Just as God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son (John 3:16), we can assume that our creator, God, has given us a new year because He loves us. This gift shows His love.
Love is not because we love God but because He loves us (Jn 4:10). God, Who gives us 365 days each year, asked Simon Peter, “do you love Me more than these?” (John 21:15) This year, He asks us, “Do you love Me more than last year?”
The God Who knows that we love Him wants us to love Him more than last year. To respond to His love, it is necessary first to know that He loves us, and we accept His love with humility and gratitude.
Let’s take a look at the testimony of the Bible about how much God loves us.
This is how God loves us: He loves us more than a mother loves her children (Is. 49:15). He calls us “My children” (John 21:5). He has chosen us (John 15:16). He knows us (John 13: 18). He will be with us forever (Rev. 3:20). He cares for us until we are old (Is. 46:4).
His love is eternal (Is. 54:10; 55:3; 50:1). His love saves (John 3:16; Is. 50:2: 59:11 43:1-4). His love is forgiving (John 8: 10-11. Matthew 18:27). His love is the love He has planned for us (Jer 29:11).
Our loving Father is a father who expresses His love to each of us (Is. 49:26). His is a love that answers our questions (Mt. 7:7-12). Christ dying for us while we were still sinners explains God’s own love for us (Rom. 5:8). He shows His love in that He gave His only Son (John 3:16). Because He loves us, He gives us the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13; Rom. 5:5). He made us His children in His love (1 John 3:11 Rom. 8:15-16).
Knowing that God loves us helps us to give ourselves more and to love ourselves. If we believe that no one loves us, we do not love ourselves. If we do not love and respect ourselves, it is difficult to love and respect others.
Therefore, while thanking the God Who loves us, let us express our love to Him in the following four ways: giving more time to Him, striving to know Him more, increasing our obedience to him and loving all people without reason. Let us express to Him that we love Him more than last year.
Being with God
Just as we always find time to be with the people we love, when we love the God Who loves us, we need time to be alone with Him. This year, more than last year, let’s arrange a time of prayer to be with Him. When we are with Him, let us thank our God for Who He is, ask for His forgiveness for our sins, thank Him for what He has done for us and ask Him for what we need.
Worshipping
When we are in the presence of God, we should humbly praise Him for who He is without forgetting that we are human beings. We believe that He is our creator and savior, our lord and lover.
God is great. His greatness is beyond what man can perceive (Ps. 145:3). He is a mighty God. He is a great king above all gods. He rules over the whole earth. He controls what He has created.
He is our God, and we are His people. He cares for us, and we are His sheep whom He feeds. (Ps. 95:1-7)
Forgiveness
When we stand to pray, when we kneel or sit on the ground, we can think of God being in front of us, before our smallness, our sinfulness. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not with us.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and He will cleanse us from unrighteousness. We should confess to God that we have committed many sins by thinking, speaking and not doing our duty.
Let us ask God’s forgiveness for the evil we have thought, the evil words we have spoken, the evil we have done and the good things we have not done. He does not despise the broken and humbled heart (Ps. 51:19).
When we openly confess our sins to Him, when we tell Him that we are transgressive, He will relieve us of the burden of our sins (Ps. 32:5). In addition, let us forgive those who have wronged us so that our heavenly Father might forgive us our sins (Mark 1: 25). Let’s ask for forgiveness from our creator by forgiving more than last year.
Thanksgiving
God accepts our repentance and forgiveness, so we should thank Him for the mercy and unspeakable gift we have received. Let us thank God more than last year for what He has done for us, what He is doing for us and what He will do for us in the future.
Remembering what He did for us yesterday, looking at what He is doing for us today and thinking about the good things He plans to do for us in the future, let us give Him the praise He deserves. As He says, “He who gives thanks honors me.” (Ps. 50:23)
Let’s celebrate Him by giving thanks more than last year. “What can we give back to the Lord except thanking Him for all the good things He has done for us?” (Ps. 116:12) Therefore, let us “give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will in Christ Jesus.” (1 Thes. 5:18)
Asking
There are many things we need both as individuals and as a society. Jesus says, “Ask and it will be given to you.” Therefore, knowing our capacity and accepting our poverty, let us ask our heavenly Father more than ever to give us what we need.
Let us pray for leaders and all those in high authority (1 Tim. 2:1-2), for the sick and the poor, especially for those who need special attention. In everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, we should make our request known to God and not be anxious about anything. (Phil.4:6)
Knowing
When we love someone, we try to know more about that person. Let’s read the Holy Bible to know God better because, as St. Jerome said, he who doesn’t know the Bible doesn’t know Christ. Let’s also pray to understand more about the identity of Christ.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen said, if knowledge was the main thing our world needed, God would have sent experts. If the world needed technology, God would have sent a scientist. If it needed money, He would have sent an economist. What our world needs most is the forgiveness of sins and freedom from sin. Jesus removes the sin of the world.
Knowing Jesus, the Lamb of God, but also knowing Him more deeply is appropriate and necessary for all creatures who are sinners. Eternal life means knowing God, Who is the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Who was sent by the Father (John 17:3).
Let us ask Him to give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that we may know Him better (Eph. 1:17). He has made us to know and love Him. By doing this, we will be blessed on this earth and enter the kingdom of heaven.
Keeping the commandments
“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments,” it is written in John 14:15. Love is defined in practice. We love God by doing His will, by loving what He loves and hating what He hates. Let us keep His commandments more this year than last year.
When we think about the previous year, just as we have reasons to be thankful, our conscience knows that there are many reasons to ask forgiveness for our sins from our creator and people we have wronged. Our excessive selfishness and cruelty, knowingly or unknowingly, the evil deeds we have committed against each other – or the times we spent watching evil happen – are enough for internal brokenness.
We have learned from our past mistakes to repent and condemn our worst deeds in the new year given to us. Let’s get ready to be partakers. As it is written, “O man, He has told you what is good: to do justice, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. What does the Lord want from you?” (Mic. 6:8). By loving forgiveness, this year more than last year, and by standing up for truth and justice, let us obey God’s will and His word. (Rom. 12:2)
Loving each other
“As I have loved you, I give you a new commandment: love one another. If you have love for one another, all people will know that you are My disciples,” our Lord Jesus said. (John 13:34)
Let us testify that we love our creator by loving all people. When we love each other, our will to live increases; our hope blossoms. On the other hand, if our life is without love, even if it is a new year, life will be meaningless. Let us live a life of love.
More than last year, let’s love each other by getting out of the attitude of hatred and bigotry. In the new year we received from our God, let’s get out of the spirit of “I” and enter into a spirit of “we.” Let us love the God who loved us by loving each other more this year than last year.
Let us renew our love by keeping His commandments and loving each other more, strengthening our friendship with Him in the new year that He has given us, and realizing that we are children of the same Father.
Love is the greatest of all.
Father Tesfaye Petros Botachew is the director of the diocese’s Office for Multicultural Ministry and a priest of the Apostolic Vicariate of Gambella in Ethiopia.