Love Divine, All Loves Excelling (ELW 631, Verses 1 & 2)
1 Love divine, all loves excelling,
Joy of heav’n, to earth come down!
Fix in us thy humble dwelling,
all thy faithful mercies crown.
Jesus, thou art all compassion,
pure, unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation,
enter ev’ry trembling heart.
2 Breathe, oh, breathe thy loving Spirit
into ev’ry troubled breast;
let us all in thee inherit;
let us find thy promised rest.
Take away the love of sinning;
Alpha and Omega be;
end of faith, as its beginning,
set our hearts at liberty.
Devotion
This hymn, written by Charles Wesley in 1747, speaks about the perfect love found in Jesus Christ. While our love is limited and weak, God’s love is beyond our understanding. We will not fully know what this love is like until we see Jesus face to face.
The hymn is in fact a prayer: In Christ, we pray that by the Holy Spirit we would never be separated from the love of God in Christ, who works in us and through us until our time on earth is done.
Prayer
Love divine, all loves excelling, enter each day our trembling heart and breathe in us your Spirit that we may be freed to love as you have loved. Amen.