Saturday 24 Mar 2012

Saturday Reading: Romans 12:9-16

Key Verse: Romans 12:10
10  Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

Devotion:
When I started on the differences between men and women a couple of weeks back, I had no idea that we would end up digging deeper into love once again; so I am going to round off this section about love with these familiar verses that all people, not just Christians, really need to get to grips with! Love needs to be sincere. After getting to know that love that Christ has shown me, the trueness and the completeness of that love, I cannot understand how we could ever get it so wrong... but then you only have to look around you to figure out that man has corrupted this thing called love.

Man is the one who has taken this single and most beautiful thing and turned it on its head. Man has taken a pure thing and corrupted it with all manner of deceitful and loathsome things. I love to be able to see the pure and innocent love in young children because it reminds me of the love that we should have towards others. As a youth leader I struggle with people who do not show love towards children and I also find it impossible to turn my back on children. Yes there was a stage in my life when I was more of the opinion that children should be seen and not heard but how can that be showing love to all when we section off those who need to know it most?

If we say that we love someone or that we love some people, then we should be willing to prove that love by expressing it toward them. That expression of love does not have to be an ‘earthly expression of love’. Many people today will describe the lust they have rather than the love they have. Many people will follow that lust and try to make a relationship work within that field of lust. How can we expect to build up a true relationship based on a corrupt thing to start with? Love is pure and honest and without deceit; any relationship should be built up in purity, in honesty and without deceit.

To a large extent, I think the last few weeks have been an expression of what God has taught me over the past few years. I have long struggled with love and how to deal with feelings and over this last decade (mostly these last few years) God has shown me so much more about love by bringing people into my life that have allowed me to separate man’s view of the world and His view. The most important thing I think I have been taught is that love is so very real and pure that it needs to be treated with absolute respect and nurtured more than anything in our lives.

Points to Ponder:
How do you view love?

How well do you treat God’s love?