"Love isn't equal. It's not like the heart that receives to give - Love doesn't take in and then let out; Love needs to keep giving - it gives all the time - or it isn't love." ~Gabriel Jarrod
My son, Gabriel, is so wise. Always was. I remember him saying so many truthful statements growing up (I've started to write them down when I hear them). And this statement is also true: "We love because He first loved us," ~1 John 4:19. The Bible says we can't love without being loved first, because love doesn't, and can't, come from us. Love can come through us from God, but Love never comes from us. Instead, "It is from within, out of a person's heart, that every evil thought comes." ~Mark 7:21.
Since God loves us directly (and only through others - not from others), we understand that though we can always get our love directly from God 24/7 (though we may not always feel it or recognize it as love), we're definitely not always going to get His love from others (because they might not be letting God's love through them - to us).
So, if we only love others fueled - energized - by their love (or in the hopes that we'll be - that we'll get their love from them; that their love will fuel us), we are guaranteed to run out of love to give them and others because "...most people's love will grow cold." ~Matthew 24:12.
"Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. The branch cannot itself produce fruit, unless it abides on the vine. Likewise, you cannot produce fruit unless you abide in Me. I am The Vine; you are the branches. The one who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for apart from Me, you can do nothing." ~John 15:4-5. And, because people can't manufacture their own love, and if they're not abiding in The Vine (The only One that Love can come through), people will have no love to give us. Subsequently, we will have no love to give back to them either unless we are connected to Someone greater who gives us love freely, constantly, and without measure - God, The Father, The Good Dad.
If we don't or can't or are unwilling to receive God's love first; If we are close-fisted to everything God wants to give us; tight-fisted in anger, confusion, or bitterness toward God, we won't be able to be open-handed enough to receive all that God wants to give us for free (including love) and we'll have no love inside us to even give to others when they want it - or need it - from us.
The Good News is that God has already loved us and is loving us still. It's because of that intake of Love that we now have the love to give to others, unlimitedly.
"Still, I'm gonna sing
I'm gonna sing about the One who's given life to me
His love is unchanging, His grace is amazing
Still, I'm gonna praise
The Only One who always stays the same
Oh, I know He is good, I know He is faithful
Still" ~Steven Curtis Chapman