May 23: 1 John 4:7-11
Key Verse: 1 John 4:11
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Devotion:
Having looked into God’s definition of love albeit in layman's terms for our sakes, we can now look at what God is asking us to do with this love. He is asking us to love one another, which again raises the doubts we have of being able to love our enemies; but as long as we keep hold of our own definition of love we will probably never be able to love our enemies!
So how do we do it? Well, we start with the love God is giving us and not what we claim to have ourselves! True love comes from God and has been shown to us through His actions. God showed His love to the Israelites by taking them out of slavery and into a land where they could thrive. God showed the love He has for all of us by allowing His one and only Son to give His own life up on the cross in our stead!
It is through Jesus’ action on the cross we have access to eternal life, not because we deserve it but because He loved us enough to provide a way for us to join Him in Heaven despite us having sin in our lives which excludes us from being with Him! His love far out-weighs the sins we have done and Jesus’ blood covers them all allowing us to come out as if we had not sinned – this is the only way we can be with God the Father!
We don’t get a free pass to Heaven just because we declare our love for God, nor for saying we love Jesus or for saying we have the Holy Spirit. We gain access to Heaven because of what Jesus has done and because He is willing to inter seed on our behalves – He is the only one who can do this because He alone shed His blood to cover our sins. This is God’s love for us embodied… so our choice is to either reject that love or to grasp it fully and follow God’s wishes; to take this love He gives us and share it with the people around us, friends and enemies alike!
Points to Ponder:
What is the most you have done for love?
Do you realise how much God has done because of His love?
May 22: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 13:6
Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
Devotion:
We spoke of God’s love yesterday and how much He cares for the whole world, but what is this love? By human standards we have all sorts of ifs and buts which we apply to love just to get us out of tight spots or ‘little lies.’ None of that is the true definition of God’s love, but these verse help us to understand some of the aspects of God’s love and enough to inspire us to aim toward something which is achievable!
To be honest, one of the hardest things to accept is when God tells us we have to love our enemies, because, well, they are our enemies! But if we take these verses to heart we begin to see how we can love our enemies through something quite different to our normal feelings we ascribe to love.
How often do you get sick and tired of waiting for someone to respond in a way you like? How often do you get envious of the love a friend has for another person? How often do you overstate your ‘love’ for someone to try and get something out of it? How often does our so-called love put others down, anger others or keep record of any little thing someone does wrong? This is not the love God wants us to have, but what we call love in this world.
God’s love does nothing described above because it is a love which covers all of those things we do wrong in our relationships. His love does not know evil but always remains in truth. His love always seeks to trust, protect, uphold, all of which gives us hope as it perseveres. This is the love God wants us to share amongst our communities and not just with the ‘one we love!’ God shares this love with us all and continue to share it no matter what happens in our lives. He does not stop loving us just because we fell off the rails and did something wrong. His love is forgiving and perpetual!
Points to Ponder:
How do you describe your love?
Will you try loving with God’s kind of love?
May 21: John 3:16-18
Key Verse: John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Devotion:
I thought it time to visit some of my favourite verses in our Bible; these are the first verses I learned off by heart and they have stuck with me through all my time since coming to know Christ! I actually learned them because I had to, but did not understand the full gravity of these words until a few years after I had learned them...
This is, unfortunately, part of the way we live nowadays. We learn things and do things because we are told to. We learn how to reply to things because that way we will pass the test of being asked the question – but that is not real in a sense it is just like a machine learning to respond to pre-set questions. The more I get to know God, the more I want to explore different ways of being with Him and different ways in which we can relate to Him.
Life should not be a pre-learned response to a set of pre-set questions. Life just isn’t like that. We get to face issues we have not faced before and get to confront new ways of seeing things. We have to adapt to life as we live it. The wonderful thing about God’s word is it isn’t a text book we have to learn verbatim! We get to use it to guide us in life. God has given us this perfect set of scripture so we can face up to almost anything; and when we reach a point we don’t understand, we need to leave it up to God to guide us through the problems.
Jesus did not come to put us all to death for the sins we have done, are doing and will do… He came to set us free from those sins so we don’t have to live that way any more. If we choose to ignore this truth, then we are condemning ourselves to live by human laws which we know to be faulty and we will die confined by those laws; but if we choose to accept God’s Word as the truth, then it will set us free from this trap we set for ourselves – all because God knew what we needed!
Points to Ponder:
Do you ever despair at the way politicians try to bend the laws?
Do you know God’s law never changes?
May 20: Colossians 3:5-10
Key Verse: Colossians 3:9
Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices
Devotion:
How often do you tell a white lie to get away from doing something or to get away from taking the blame for something you have done? I have always tried to make sure I tell the truth, but I know there are many times when I have not told the truth just because it was more suitable for me to not do so! This is the life we are trying to leave behind as we move forward with God in our lives – but it is not as easy as dropping off our dirty laundry at the cleaners and getting on with our lives!
Whenever I say something like that I stop and think about what I have said, not because it is profound or anything, but because of the gravity of what I have just dared to write down on paper! It also makes me think of the people who have jobs where they cannot help but get dirty during their work; my mind goes back to movies I have seen about people who have worked in coal mines and they have come home looking rather blackened with the coal dust. Nothing that a good wash cannot take away – but that image sticks in my mind!
God is so much more than the dirt we carry round in our lives. He is so much more than the residue we have on us because of the lives we live. Whether we live those lives by choice or just because we don’t have a choice, God is still there and still able to take ultimate care of us! There is no sin greater than the forgiveness and faithfulness of our God. There is nothing we can do which will prevent God from being here for us. Yes, we have a choice to ask God into our lives or not, but He is still there, waiting!
So let us put aside the lies of this world for as long as we can, starting here and now. I know this may not last too long for many of us because of the world we are surrounded by, but we can at least start again. Jesus was faithful to go to that cross so our sins could be forgiven once and for all. He has already done that so we do not have to continue on in our sins any longer. Be brave. Ask God to help you change.
Points to Ponder:
How often do you lie?
Will you try start afresh again?