You can’t give what you haven’t received.
Think about that for a moment. How many of us have tried to love others while running on empty ourselves? We push harder. We try more. We tell ourselves we just need to be better Christians. But deep down, we’re exhausted.
Here’s the truth that changes everything: God never asked you to manufacture love. He asked you to receive it.
The Foundation of Everything
Paul writes something remarkable in Romans 5:5:
“God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
Notice the language. Poured out. Not dripped. Not rationed. Poured.
This isn’t theory. This isn’t something that happened once at your conversion, and now you’re supposed to remember it fondly. This is present tense. Active. Ongoing. The Holy Spirit is pouring God’s love into your heart right now.
But here’s where most of us get it wrong. We treat this verse like information instead of invitation. We memorise it for a test instead of receiving it as our daily bread. We believe it happened without letting it happen again today.
God’s love isn’t something you graduate from. It’s something you live from.
Before You Do Anything
You live from love before you act in love.
Read that again. Your actions flow from your position. Your obedience flows from your relationship. Your service flows from your sonship.
Too many believers have it backwards. We think we need to obey our way into feeling loved. We think if we just serve more, pray more, give more, then maybe we’ll experience God’s love. But that’s not how it works.
Jesus didn’t tell His disciples to love others, and then they’d know His love. He said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love” (John 15:9). The command is to remain. To stay. To receive.
You can’t remain in something you haven’t entered. You can’t stay in a love you haven’t received.
The Holy Spirit’s first work in your life isn’t to make you useful. It’s to make you loved. Not to get you busy. To get you rooted. Not to send you out empty. To fill you up first.
The Daily Rhythm
This changes how you start your day.
Most of us wake up and immediately start thinking about what we need to do. Our minds race to our tasks, our problems, our responsibilities. We hit the ground running. But what if you started differently?
What if your first thought wasn’t about your performance but about your position? What if before you considered what you need to do for God, you remembered what God has done for you?
The Spirit wants to meet you there. In that quiet moment. In that still space. He wants to pour love into your heart before you pour yourself out for others.
This isn’t selfish. This is sustainable. This is how Jesus lived. He withdrew to lonely places to be with the Father. He spent nights in prayer. He received before He gave. And He calls you to do the same.
Love Changes Obedience
When you live from love, obedience looks different.
It stops being a burden. It stops feeling like duty. It starts feeling like response. Like gratitude. Like the natural overflow of a heart that’s been filled.
Think about it. When someone truly loves you, don’t you want to please them? Not because you’re afraid of losing their love, but because their love makes you want to honour them?
That’s the kind of obedience God is after. Not the obedience of a slave trying to avoid punishment. The obedience of a son or daughter responding to a Father’s love.
John writes, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). First. The order matters. His love comes first. Your love responds. His initiative. Your response. His filling. Your flowing.
When you try to obey without receiving love first, you end up tired and resentful. You feel used. You wonder why no one appreciates you. You burn out.
But when you obey from love, you feel energised. Not because the work is easier, but because you’re connected to the source. You’re drawing from the well instead of squeezing water from stones.
The Question You Need to Ask
Here’s what you need to get honest about: Where do you still try to earn what God has already given you?
Where are you working for acceptance instead of working from acceptance? Where are you performing for approval instead of living from approval? Where are you striving for love instead of receiving love?
Be specific. Is it in your ministry? Your relationships? Your prayer life? Your giving?
Many of us have subtle ways of trying to earn God’s love. We don’t say it out loud, but our hearts believe it. We think if we pray longer, He’ll love us more. If we serve harder, He’ll be more pleased. If we get our life together, He’ll finally be proud of us.
But God’s love isn’t earned. It’s given. It’s not a wage. It’s a gift. It’s not conditional. It’s covenant.
The Spirit wants to break that mindset. He wants to free you from the treadmill of performance. He wants you to stop working for what you already have.
This Month’s Journey
That’s why we’re spending this entire month on living loved. Because it’s that important. Because it’s that foundational. Because everything else in your Christian life flows from this one truth.
We’ve prepared resources to help you not just learn about God’s love but to actually receive it. To experience it. To live from it.
Our Prayer Guide, “Abide, Receive, Release”, will lead you through daily rhythms. Simple practices that centre your heart on receiving the Father’s love, responding in obedience, and releasing love toward others. These aren’t complicated exercises. They’re gentle invitations to let the Spirit do what He does best: pour out love.
The Bible studies on “Love Poured Out, Love Lived Out” will help you recognise love as the work of God within you. Not something you manufacture. Not something you fake. But something the Spirit produces as you stay connected to Him. You’ll see how Scripture consistently presents love as God’s initiative, not human effort.
The Discipleship Guide, “You Are a Beloved Disciple”, explores who you really are. Not just what you do. Your identity as someone loved by God. Someone empowered by the Spirit. Someone who grows through union with Christ, not religious activity. This guide will anchor you in truth when performance pressure tries to creep back in.
And because we know you need practical help, we’re offering Practical Living Tips, “Walking in Love Each Day”. These are real, actionable ways to cooperate with the Spirit in daily obedience. Not burdensome rules. Simple steps that help you live out what you’ve received.
What This Looks Like
Let me paint a picture of what living loved actually looks like.
You wake up. Before you check your phone, you pause. You invite the Spirit to remind you that you’re loved. You don’t rush this. You let it sink in. You receive.
You face a difficult conversation. Instead of reacting from fear or defensiveness, you remember you’re secure in God’s love. The Spirit gives you peace. You respond with grace instead of anger.
You serve someone. It doesn’t feel draining because you’re not serving to earn anything. You’re serving from overflow. The Spirit empowers you. You find joy in it.
You fail. You make a mistake. You disappoint someone. But instead of spiralling into shame, you run to the Father. The Spirit reminds you that your worth isn’t based on your performance. You’re still loved. You repent, receive forgiveness, and move forward.
You interact with others. Love flows naturally. Not because you’re trying really hard to be loving, but because the Spirit has filled you up. You have something to give because you’ve received.
This is what it means to live loved. It’s practical. It’s daily. It’s real.
The Spirit’s Role
The Holy Spirit isn’t just a doctrine to believe. He’s a person to know. And His primary ministry in your life is to make the Father’s love real to you.
Jesus promised, “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things” (John 14:26). One of the main things He teaches is how loved you are.
The Spirit takes the truth of God’s love and makes it experiential. He moves it from your head to your heart. From concept to conviction. From information to transformation.
This is why you need Him. You can’t manufacture this experience on your own. You can’t work yourself into feeling loved. You need the Spirit to reveal it. To make it real. To pour it out.
And He will. He wants to. That’s His job. That’s His joy.
Breaking Free
Living loved means breaking free from the performance trap.
You don’t have to prove yourself anymore. You don’t have to measure up. You don’t have to be enough. You already are enough in Christ.
The Holy Spirit wants to convince you of this. He wants to liberate you from the exhausting cycle of trying to earn what’s already yours. He wants to replace striving with receiving. Anxiety with rest. Fear with confidence.
But you have to let Him. You have to stop long enough to receive. You have to be still long enough to feel. You have to open your heart long enough for love to pour in.
This isn’t passive. It’s active receiving. It’s intentional opening. It’s deliberate positioning.
The Vision Ahead
Imagine a community of believers who live this way. Who operate from fullness instead of emptiness. Who serve from joy instead of obligation. Who love naturally because they’ve been loved supernaturally.
That’s the vision. That’s what’s possible. That’s what the Holy Spirit wants to create.
And it starts with you. Right where you are. Right now.
This month is your opportunity. To reset. To recentre. To remember what matters most. To let the Spirit do the deep work of convincing your heart that you’re loved.
Not so you can feel good. So you can live free. Not so you can be blessed. So you can be a blessing. Not so you can receive love and keep it. So you can receive love and release it.
Your Next Step
Here’s what I want you to do.
First, stop trying so hard. Stop striving. Stop performing. Just for a moment, let it all go.
Second, ask the Holy Spirit to pour out God’s love in your heart right now. Not someday. Not eventually. Right now. Use the words of Paul’s prayer:
“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:16-18).
Third, commit to this month’s journey. Download the Prayer Guide. Start the Bible study. Work through the Discipleship Guide. Implement the Practical Living Tips. Don’t just read about love. Receive it.
Fourth, pay attention. Notice when you slip back into performance mode. Catch yourself when you start trying to earn what’s already given. Invite the Spirit to redirect you. To remind you. To fill you again.
The Promise
God promises that His love is available. Always. Abundantly. Without measure.
The Holy Spirit promises to make that love real in your experience. To pour it out. To fill you up. To empower you to live from it.
You don’t have to figure this out alone. You don’t have to manufacture feelings. You don’t have to fake it till you make it.
You just have to receive.
The love is already there. The Spirit is already willing. The only question is: Will you open your heart? Will you position yourself to receive? Will you stop earning and start receiving?
This month, let the Spirit convince you that you’re loved. Not because of what you’ve done. Because of who He is. Not because you’re worthy. Because He’s gracious. Not because you’ve earned it. Because He’s given it.
Live loved. Let it fill you. Let it free you. Let it flow through you.
The world is desperate for people who love this way. Who serve this way. Who live this way. And it all starts with receiving what the Holy Spirit wants to pour out.
Your heart is the vessel. His love is the gift. The Holy Spirit is the giver.
Open up. Receive deeply. Live freely.
That’s what this month is all about. That’s what this life is all about.
You are loved. Now live like it.
