Sunday 13 Feb 2011

Sunday Reading: John 13:34-35

Key Verse: John 13:35
35  By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

Devotion:
Throughout the Old Testament we are given examples of how fathers, when they were close to death, would give instructions to their children after setting their houses in order. I know that is a bit of a morbid thought to start a devotion on but that is probably close to what Christ was doing here. He knew the path that lay before Him and He knew that He would soon be dead and would no longer walk with the disciples so giving them the final set of instructions came naturally. He already looked upon them as His children, the same as He looks upon us as His children.

His instruction to them was quite simple but is one that too many ignore every day. His instruction was to love other people as He loved them. His love for them was about to take on a whole new meaning and giving them this instruction now so that they could remember it was a good plan – of course every plan of God is a good plan! We tend to pick and chose the people that we love but that is not what God is teaching us here because He would rather that we love everyone so that we would not be tempted into ignoring some. Yes we do exactly that; we ignore some people! That is a common thing amongst us and Christ wanted us to know that and see it as one of our failings that needed to be addressed.

If we pick and chose who we want to be our friends then we are not going to get very far with following God’s instructions because His instructions are to everybody and not just the people that we pick and chose! There are always people that He sends into your life that He wants you to care for. If we go about choosing who we want out of the people He gives us then we are not following His will but our own will. When God gives you a love for people there is no holding back because you know that God is in it. What you do with that love is sometimes difficult for us because we have our own ideas of what love should entail. Stop trying to be you and allow God to have a go!

Points to Ponder:
Who have you chosen in your life?

Have you ignored God’s children?