Saturday Reading: 1 John 4:18-21
Key Verse: 1 John 4:20
20 If a man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
Devotion:
It is so easy to say that you love someone and that you hate someone else. It is easy to get cross with others when they do things wrong. It is easy to say that you don’t want to be friends with someone who is not friendly toward you… The hard parts come when we are reminded that we ought to love our friends as well as to love our enemies. The hard part comes when we have to turn round and accept those people into our lives that we fear or hate because of what they do or stand for.
But with Christ we are able to reach out to others and to especially reach out in love to them. To be able to say that you love someone is kind of easy – but to really mean it is the hard part. I have been so very blessed by God with the gift of being able to love people for what they are and for what they stand for. Yes I do still have issues with people and I’m pretty sure they have issues with me – but that love that Christ shows me gives me the ability to reach out and to love others. Indeed I do get upset with others when they even put down someone, never mind when they say that they don’t like someone.
When I look back in my life I see a whole string of mistakes and errors that could have been done differently and many that could have been fixed if I had reacted back then and not left things until they were too late! But I also thank God that He has given me a patient heart that will wait on Him to find out the truth and to find out what he has in store for me.
A few years back I would rush into relationships and figure out what went wrong afterward. Today I have learned to patiently wait on God to show me the truth behind love and to then aim at following His will in my life rather than my human side! That does not mean that I don’t make mistakes, because I still do – but with patience I wait on God and wait to see how He has planned out my life. His love for me knows no bounds – why then should I put limits on my faith toward Him?
Points to Ponder:
Do you believe and trust in Christ?
Have you seen just how much His love can do in your life?
