Saturday 13 Jul 2013

Saturday Reading: 1 John 4:7-13

Key Verse: 1 John 4:12
12  No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

Devotion:
As Matthew Henry puts it “The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love.” The very essence of God is love and He wants us to know that love fully. If we turn away love in this world then we are dulling our spirits toward love and hence dulling our spirits toward God. How does that work? Think about it for a bit. In order to properly commune with God we have to love Him wholly. We cannot experience love or participate fully in love if we are rejecting love here on earth. If all love comes from God in the beginning then when we share love we are sharing what God has placed in us; but when we reject love we are rejecting part of what God has placed in us and in others.

It does not matter that we have not seen God at any time because He has placed within us all that we need to get to know Him without meeting Him face to face. If we were to meet Him face to face in our sinful state then we would have a big problem because God cannot accept sin in His midst. But just because He cannot accept sin face to face does not mean that He cannot accept us at all. Jesus went to that cross so that our sins would be forgiven when we ask Him to forgive us. That gives us a totally clean slate when we do finally get to meet God. What a demonstration of love!

If we reject love we will never really get to know God because we have to accept that we are sinners and that Christ has shown us an incredible act of love before we even got to know Him. We may learn all about Christ and God, but we need to accept that love and respond with love in order to know Him more. Loving those around us even though they may be doing things against us is what Christ has shown us; we need to follow on in His example.

I thank God that He has given me a big heart and allows me to love people for what they are. I hear many people complaining about others and saying that they could never accept the way they are, but I don’t see many people extending love toward them to show them that there is a better way. I see many people with an agenda to improve or prove themselves, but not many who are willing to help others to improve themselves. I try to spend my life for others and I know I upset some people because I dare to support people that they have rejected; but God’s love shows me I need to support everyone who has ears to hear about God.

Points to Ponder:
Can you love your enemies?

Did not God love you in the beginning?