Lord Jesus, I begin my morning in desperate need of your presence in my life.
“Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. It is not glad about injustice, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
My devotions this week began with out need to know our families intimately and pray specifically for them. The following days God’s Spirt led me to share devotions on marriage and faithfulness, then our need for community and connection, then God’s Holy Love taking the long view. As our house church reflected on in our den last night over the Beatitudes, “Bleesed are the pure in heart”, those hearts pure in love All my reflections this week can be traced back to love: Love go God, family, in our marriages, with our neighbors, in determining out outcomes. As Paul states above, Lord Jesus let my love for You and my love for others be pure -- untainted and undefiled by self-seeking and self-serving motives. Let my love for You and for others include patients, kindness and not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude, not insisting on my own way, not irritable or resentful, never rejoicing in wrongdoing to others but always rejoicing in truth, bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, and enduring all things to never end.
"Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor" (Romans 12:9-10).
Lord Jesus, form in me a love that is genuine. And as I genuinely love You and love others, help me love genuinely myself as well (Matthew 22:37-39). Help me love with a genuine, authentic love that shifts the spiritual atmosphere, that changes hearts and minds to change the world, beginning with our own. This is the Spirit and the Presence and the power of God living true through us (1 John 4:16). Lord, increase my capacity to love and be loved genuinely today. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray the Lord may increase your capacity to love and be loved genuinely today. May the Holy Spirit give you boldness to love others and allow others to love you. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
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