1 John 4:10, 19 Amplified Version
In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins.
We love Him because He first loved us.
Let’s get one thing straight. We say we love God. That’s good. But when we look at how we have treated Him over our lifetime that is not a perfect picture of love. We would not have known anything about loving God if He had not first loved us. To see what love really is we need to look at what God has done for us. John said the real picture of love is God sending Jesus to shed His blood to pay for our sins. Get that! While we were sinners, He laid down His life for us. May we grow to love Him more as time passes. Let us remain faithful to God until the end. It will take us all our lives just to begin to say thanks for the love He has shown us.