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Post Date: |
Monday, 2017-03-27 |
| SCRIPTURE | |
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From: |
1 John 4:7-8 (Voice) |
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Text: |
7 My loved ones, let us devote ourselves to loving one another. Love comes straight from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and truly knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. |
| OBSERVATION: | |
| The first verse details how to know if we know God, while the second explains how we will know when we are not one with the Father, and this all revolves around how well we do with loving one another. | |
| APPLICATION: | |
| I believe that our first instinct when we read verses like this, is to reflect on how much we love our spouse, children, mother, father, siblings and possibly our friends. However, by comparing our love with the love of God, we must also consider how well we do at loving the person who is not very lovable to us, or the person who always acts like they hate the world, especially Christians. To make a difference in this world, and truly show that the supernatural God of this universe plays a key role in our life, we must strive daily to be more like Him, and to give Him total control of our lives, for I believe that until we are totally submissive to Him, there will be too much of the sinful nature controlling us. Friends, these verses are very clear that this kind of love comes straight from God. They are also clear in telling us that when we fail to love one another, then the evidence shows that we do not know God. Now let that sink in for a moment. Since God is love, and He showed His ultimate love for us by sending His only Son to die on a cross for our sins, then if we claim to be His children, under His control, surely we would automatically strive to love just as He did. So may I encourage you to analyze yourself today as you go about your way? Better still, have a little talk with Jesus and ask Him to make you very aware of when you are not acting like Him, or loving others as He would. If you truly know Jesus as Lord and Savior, then you know the plumb line against which you will compare yourself. Please don’t compare to anyone one else, your ability or willingness to love others. | |
| PRAYER: | |
| Lord Jesus, thank You for first loving me! For loving me unconditionally – in spite of who I once was, The love that You show each day for Your children here on earth is beyond all description, but it has set a precedence for us to seek Your help and Your guidance so that we might love one another with that same kind of love. Please forgive us when we take things into our own hands and mess up so royally. I am convinced that it is only through the amazing grace of Jesus that we could love the happiest of people and the most miserable unloving, unkind individuals that You will place before us today. May it be easy for us to reflect back on the day and say the it was solely by the grace of God that we showed love even to the most challenging individuals, just as You would have done. Teach us to especially get this particular characteristic in order, so that the world might see Your grace and Your love even through us. AMEN! | |
| FOOTNOTE: | |
| There are two more pages on my blog that will provide you with additional information, one of them being ‘To Know Jesus’. If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please click on the above page, or speak with a local Bible Teaching Pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com. Please allow someone to pray with you and give you help and/or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Words underlined in my blog could indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to Nuggets From God’s Word and read more, or you may freely to subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, located at 3750 Hammock Rd, Sebring, FL 33872! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us! | |
Tag: God is love
Love Is….
THE HOLY BIBLE – 4 Love is kind and patient, never jealous, boastful, proud, or 5 rude. Love isn’t selfish or quick tempered. It doesn’t keep a record of wrongs that others do. 6 Love rejoices in the truth, but not in evil. 7 Love is always supportive, loyal, hopeful, and trusting. 8 Love never fails! ~ 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 ~ The Contemporary English Version (CEV)
THOUGHTS: This scripture will probably sound very familiar to you, because you either heard it read at your wedding, or at a wedding ceremony where you were in attendance. Yes, I agree that this whole chapter, known as the ‘Love’ chapter, very much applies to a couple either considering marriage or may even serve as a commitment for a couple making a lifetime commitment based on the love that they share for each other. This actually hit me a little differently as I meditated on this passage this morning, and it is from this perspective that I would like to share a few words with you today. God is the greatest demonstrator of love – to the extent that He is even referred to as ‘love’ in the Biblical phrase “God is ‘love’“. So considering that He sent His Son as our example of His love for us, and if everything ‘Love’ did while here on earth represents ‘love’ in its truest form, should we not be following His example? If we expect to be ‘little Christs’, then we must closely study what Christ himself did, and what He stood for. Don’t you know that we must always question our motives or even our relationship with the Lord when we realize that we are being: unkind; impatient; jealous; boastful; rude; selfish; quick tempered; keeping records of the wrongs other do; despising the truth; rejoicing in evil; unsupportive; disloyal; mistrusting and always failing in our commitments and love towards others? Friends, these actions are more characteristic of the enemy (Satan), so can we truly convince the world that we are a child of the King of all kings, when we act like that? May I challenge you to review your actions after your events of today and talk it over with God, so He could open your eyes to whether you represented His characteristic of ‘Love’, or whether it was probably pretty obvious to everyone who controls your life? This could result in a pretty sobering turn around in your life, all because of ‘LOVE’. I trust that it will be evident to the world whose you are by the love that you show towards God and mankind each day!
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, loving Savior, thank You for the ultimate love that You demonstrated on the cross so that we may know You – that we may know the essence of ‘Love’. Lord, Your Word is clear that we must demonstrate all that You have taught us so that the world might see You in all that we are and in all that we say. May this be a day that Your children will make it obvious to the world, that they are Yours and may it be proven through our words, actions and love. Thank You Father for first loving us! Now, may we carry on that tradition by loving all that we come into contact with! I ask these things in all sincerity and through the loving name of Jesus, AMEN!
FOOTNOTE: If you have been challenged to make a decision today after reading this devotional, please speak with a local Bible Teaching pastor, or contact me at NuggetsFromGodsWord@outlook.com so that we can pray with you and give you help and or encouragement as you begin, or continue your walk with Jesus. Any words underlined above will indicate a link to a song that came to mind as I wrote the devotional. Feel free to click on the link and listen as you continue to read or pray. If this devotional was forwarded to you and you would like to see more, please go to blogger.nuggetsfromgodsword.org and read more, or you may freely subscribe for a daily email conveniently containing each day’s devotional. If you are anywhere near the Highlands County, Florida area and do not have a church home, I would be thrilled to welcome you at Bible Fellowship Church, Sebring, FL! Click the link to check out service times and/or other special activities. God is at work among us! Please consider coming to worship with us!
Nuggets From God's Word 