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God Is Love
God showed His love to us by sending His one and only son to die on the cross for our sins. The phrase, “why do bad things happen to good people? happened only once, and He volunteered” got me thinking. It’s true that the only good person, Jesus, allowed the bad (death on the cross) to happen in His life.
Just as Christ volunteered to die for our sins to show His love for us, what can we volunteer to do to show our love to God? Verse 16 says that "God is love and whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him.”
So how do we live in love? There are many ways of showing love. Verse 20 says we are liars if we say we love God, whom we cannot see, but hate our brothers whom we can see.
Practically, we cannot love everyone. How can I love someone who hurts me or lies to me consistently? Many times we confuse ourselves with hating someone and protecting ourselves.
We can protect ourselves yet love the other person. I may avoid someone who consistently lies to me or sometimes just hates me for who I am. It does not mean I hate them.
How do I know that I am protecting myself and not hating them? We first need to try having an open conversation with them. Despite trying, if it does not work, we still need to be prepared to show love. We should also be in a position to openly accept them when they come to us in repentance and build the relationship.
We need to realize that in building the broken relationship we would also have to ask forgiveness as some of our actions would have hurt the other person. When we genuinely love someone, we should know which action of ours hurt the other person and avoid doing it.
We need to run this test on every relationship we have. We need to get to a point of volunteering to love anyone even if they choose to hate us. May God give us the wisdom to discern if there is hate in my heart or am I just protecting myself from the hate of others?
God showed His love to us by sending His one and only son to die on the cross for our sins. The phrase, “why do bad things happen to good people? happened only once, and He volunteered” got me thinking. It’s true that the only good person, Jesus, allowed the bad (death on the cross) to happen in His life.
Just as Christ volunteered to die for our sins to show His love for us, what can we volunteer to do to show our love to God? Verse 16 says that "God is love and whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him.”
So how do we live in love? There are many ways of showing love. Verse 20 says we are liars if we say we love God, whom we cannot see, but hate our brothers whom we can see.
Practically, we cannot love everyone. How can I love someone who hurts me or lies to me consistently? Many times we confuse ourselves with hating someone and protecting ourselves.
We can protect ourselves yet love the other person. I may avoid someone who consistently lies to me or sometimes just hates me for who I am. It does not mean I hate them.
How do I know that I am protecting myself and not hating them? We first need to try having an open conversation with them. Despite trying, if it does not work, we still need to be prepared to show love. We should also be in a position to openly accept them when they come to us in repentance and build the relationship.
We need to realize that in building the broken relationship we would also have to ask forgiveness as some of our actions would have hurt the other person. When we genuinely love someone, we should know which action of ours hurt the other person and avoid doing it.
We need to run this test on every relationship we have. We need to get to a point of volunteering to love anyone even if they choose to hate us. May God give us the wisdom to discern if there is hate in my heart or am I just protecting myself from the hate of others?
Scripture
About this Plan
This devotion is a practical study to see who God is and how we can reflect the same character of God in our life. We are created in the image of God and we need to live lives that reflect God in us. We desire our children to take after us. In the same manner, our heavenly Father wants us to take after Him.
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