Growing to Understand God’s Love for Us
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Christ made it clear, without love, our faith meant nothing. God is love. Sometimes, the best way to understand a Biblical passage is to pray God would help us to understand it better. We then read the words of Scripture, faithfully waiting for His supernatural Word to come alive in our lives. When the apostle John wrote to the early church, he dedicated a section of one of his letters to discuss God’s love and ours. Let us pray, read the following Scripture the apostle John wrote, and allow it to change us from the inside out.
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1 John 4:17-18 reads:
Fear of God is reverence and worship, awe and love. Fear, as in the terror and anxiety in this world, is driven out by Love and replaced with peace and hope, joy and healing. “The fact that we are like Christ in love is a sign that God, who is love, lives in us, therefore we may have confidence on the day of judgment that we are saved,” the NIV Study Bible explains. “There is no fear of God’s judgement because genuine love confirms salvation.” A healthy fear of God is a sign of strong faith, but there is no need to fear the threats of the world and our very real enemy coming up against us. We can rest in knowing Love conquers all, and has already defeated our enemy.
Father,
It’s hard for us to wrap our minds around how great Your love for us is. When we are afraid, our guts clench and we bite the sides of our months in terror and anxiety. Our minds wander away from the safety of Your promise to protect us with armies of angels. Help us to remember You, immediately, when we are afraid, God. Let there be no hesitation in our trust in You, and Your love. Help us to know and follow Your lead on our lives, Your calling for our generation and our community. We want to know You more, God, and not only understand Your love, but become vessels of it.
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
1 John 4:19-21 reads:
Parents, at the end of their lives, will often wish to see all of their children come together. It brings a father and a mother joy to see their children co-existing peacefully in love as families were meant to do. We are the family of God, adopted into royalty through Christ Jesus!
Our Father in heaven, our Good Father, commands us to love one another! If our earthly fathers have this wish, how much more does our heavenly Father intend for His children, all His perfect creation, to love one another as they love Him? Often, we love our parents, but not always our siblings. As we get older, it can be easy for siblings to drift apart unless intentionally coming together in love. This is our calling as the children of God, to come together in love, because He loved us first. We were created by Love, to love!
Father,
Praise You for this day, and Your purpose for it. This is the day You have made, we will rejoice and be glad in it! Jehovah Jireh, Jesus Messiah, Spirit of God, One True, Triune, God, glory to You in the highest! Let Your love reign down on us and our lives. Hydrate us with Your Living Water, and weave the power of Your supernatural Word into our lives with such power, the other people You have placed in our lives have no doubt who You are. Let our lives bring glory to You before we ever lift a hand in the air to sing praise to You!
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen.
Additional Source
NIV Study Bible, Copyright © 1985, 1995, 2002, 2008, 2011 by Zondervan.
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