NOVEMBER 1
LIVING IN LOVE
1 John 4:16
We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. (WEB)
We are called to live a life of love. In today's Scripture passage, the Apostle John says that whoever remains in love remains in God, for God is love. The New International Version translates 1 John 4:16 this way: "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us." God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
While the call to 'live in love' may seem like a tall order, it's actually quite simple. Since Jesus told us that the Kingdom of God belongs to little children (Luke 18:15-17), I choose to believe that anything too difficult for a child to live out intuitively is too difficult... period.
If you look at the heart of a little child, you will see a love sponge. Our God and Father has woven the need for love into their DNA, and without it, it is hard for them to cope. Studies in orphanages worldwide have shown us that without the practical, expressed love of caregivers, little babies can suffer severe emotional and physical trauma.
Each of us has a deep need to be loved inside us. This need was placed in us when we were conceived and stays with us today. Since we were made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), who is described in today's Scripture as love itself, we also have a strong need to love and be loved.
My prayer today is that the Holy Spirit helps us truly receive the Kingdom of God like a little child, so we can open our hearts to love. May God guide us back to a place in our hearts where we can accept all the love we were created to receive, enabling us to live constantly in a state of being loved by the One who is love itself.
Ephesians 3:14-21
14 For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to him be the glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. (WEB)
We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. (WEB)
We are called to live a life of love. In today's Scripture passage, the Apostle John says that whoever remains in love remains in God, for God is love. The New International Version translates 1 John 4:16 this way: "And so we know and rely on the love God has for us." God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
While the call to 'live in love' may seem like a tall order, it's actually quite simple. Since Jesus told us that the Kingdom of God belongs to little children (Luke 18:15-17), I choose to believe that anything too difficult for a child to live out intuitively is too difficult... period.
If you look at the heart of a little child, you will see a love sponge. Our God and Father has woven the need for love into their DNA, and without it, it is hard for them to cope. Studies in orphanages worldwide have shown us that without the practical, expressed love of caregivers, little babies can suffer severe emotional and physical trauma.
Each of us has a deep need to be loved inside us. This need was placed in us when we were conceived and stays with us today. Since we were made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), who is described in today's Scripture as love itself, we also have a strong need to love and be loved.
My prayer today is that the Holy Spirit helps us truly receive the Kingdom of God like a little child, so we can open our hearts to love. May God guide us back to a place in our hearts where we can accept all the love we were created to receive, enabling us to live constantly in a state of being loved by the One who is love itself.
Ephesians 3:14-21
14 For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be strengthened to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, 21 to him be the glory in the assembly and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. (WEB)