Thursday 3 Jul 2014

July 3: 1 John 4:7-11

Key Verse: 1 John 4:11
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Devotion:
If we have difficulty with love then we are going to have difficulty with God because God is love. I am not talking about having difficulty with finding a partner and falling in love and all the rest of so called normality. I am talking about the love that we find in other people and the love that we should be sharing with other people. I do find it difficult to love some people because I am not as loving as God and I struggle to believe people who say one thing and do another. Yes we are all guilty of that at some stage, but when people are so loving in church and no so out of church, then I question their commitment to God. It is hard not to judge people in these circumstances!

God showed us His love through a living example, Christ Jesus. We need to show other people love and respect through our living example toward them. We need to show God that respect and love that He has already shown us too. Yes it is going to be difficult because we have our moments, some of us have a lot of those moments! But unless we are willing to set aside our conditions for love we are going to continue struggling. We will sometimes have a list of items that have to be matched before we will accept love or give it. God did not do that. He gave love and then listed what we should be in return.

I do see love deep inside most people and I tend to latch onto that love to try and bring it out of them because many people do not know how to share that love. Christ was the ultimate example because He was able to show people how to love each other through His unconditional example. I have got some pretty strange remarks from people I know just because I can see something in someone else that they cannot; but equally I have been questioned as to why I find it hard to mix with others.

God’s love is not conditional. God’s love is not prejudiced. God’s love is not incomplete. God loved us before we knew Him and He will continue to love us, because His love is not limited. We can continue to pull apart our love, stick holes in it and say how horrible we are but that would not help us with our love. We need to be positive, be willing, be uplifting and be sincere in learning to love others so that they can see a bit of God’s love through us. Then we will have succeeded!

Points to Ponder:
How do you see your love?

Do you love Christ?