For the next few days, we will be looking at loving others the way God loves us - with a selfless love that is passionately committed to their well-being.
In the garden of Eden, God only gave one command “Do not eat of the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.” They didn’t obey and things didn’t go well. At the last supper, Jesus said to His disciples “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Again, one commandment from God. If we don’t obey, things won’t go well.
People can be unkind, impatient, selfish, am I right? So loving other people based on their personality traits or how they treat us just isn’t going to work. But Jesus has commanded us to love (John 13:34,35). So how do we do that? There is only one way – God has to do it through us. 1 John 4:15 tells us that His Spirit lives in those who have accepted Christ so God will be the one loving through us.
And it is a fruit of the Spirit, so like all fruit, it must grow and develop. But just like a gardener can help fruit grow, there are practical things we can do to help God’s love to grow. One thing we can do is meditate on God’s Word. He tells us that His Word will always produce fruit (Isaiah 55:11). And the fruit we need is LOVE.
So today, we will use God’s Word to produce God’s love in us. Let’s say for example, I’m having a hard time with someone named “Cindy” (I love every “Cindy” I know, this is just an example.) I will personalize God’s word using the name of the person I need help loving.
For example using 1 Corinthians 13:4 – I will read aloud “Love is patient and kind to Cindy. Love is not jealous or boastful, proud or rude to Cindy. Love does not demand its own way with Cindy. Love is not irritable and keeps no record of when Cindy has wronged it.
Find 8 – 10 verses on love and personalize them this way. The easiest way to do this is to get scripture cards. You don’t need to buy ours (of course you can if you want to) or you can create your own using 3 x 5 cards. If you would like ours, see the button below. We also have a free download with the verses, also shown below.
Day 4 Challenge: Personalize 8 - 10 scriptures on Love using the name of someone who is challenging to love. Read these out loud each day for the remainder of the challenge.