Post by solitarysoul on Mar 6, 2007 9:49:15 GMT -5
"Love" - Devotion for March 4th, 2007
Today's Scripture
"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." - 1 John 4:8
Today's Word
" God is love ." Love is one of the characteristics of God. We know that God is not just love, because He has many characteristics. He is eternal, omnipotent, self-existent, holy, merciful, just, graceful, etc. But God does not ever abandon or withhold one of His characteristics in order to exercise another. Therefore every action that God does is out of love. Even when He expresses His wrath and anger, it is out of love. God is the source of real, pure, eternal love.
God has the right to do whatever He wants because of His sovereignty, just because of who He is. So to the non-believer it would seem as though God cannot be loving, because the fact that He may do whatever He wishes would make it seem as though He is a tyrant. But regardless of how the circumstances may seem, everything God does is out of love for us. So He is not a tyrant, He is completely loving in every way.
Throughout the Bible we see people suffering through great trials and difficulties, but even these were acts of love by God. Job is probably one of the best examples, because he went through such horrible trials which were necessary for his salvation.
Too many people in the world today, especially in western society, have developed the idea that loving someone means to give that person whatever they want, because you want them to be happy. But what many don't seem to understand is that the person who loves you the most is not the one who will always entertain you and get you feeling great right now, but the one who will give you the most truth, and do whatever is necessary for your own good.
Think of a parent and child relationship. We were all disciplined by our parents growing up, and for those of you who are parents or will become parents, you too will discipline your children. It always made us angry or upset, and I doubt just about anyone ever thanked their parents for such things. But is this done out of hatred, or out of love? Love, of course. Parents discipline their children for their own good. The child doesn't understand at the time why he or she must go through this, and it does not make them happy right then, but we know that does not mean the parents don't love them. It means the exact opposite in fact. In the end, it is for the child's own good.
Picture this scenario as another example. Say there are two people who claim to love you. One of them does everything he can to get you to have a good time, and to entertain you and make you laugh, so that you will enjoy spending time with him. His goal is to get you having fun right now, at whatever cost. But now say the other person's focus is on speaking the truth to you. He wants to make you happy and make you have fun yes, but that is not his focus, his focus is on God's Word, speaking the truth. His focus is not entirely on your entertainment and pleasure right now, but on your overall well-being. So if you do something against the Word of God, he will rebuke you. Who do you think would love you more? The person who is more focused on giving you a great time? Or the person who is more focused on speaking the truth to you, even if it would make you angry?
We live in a world today that seems to be driven by entertainment. We're always doing something that has something to do with the internet, TV, or the media. Living seems to be all about entertainment these days, so most of us would be reluctant to say that the person who is less entertaining loves us. Or, at least the one who entertains us the most is the one we would rather spend our time with.
But the truth is, if the person telling you biblical truth is geniune in their faith, they are the one who loves you much, much more. Think about it. Someone who is just trying to entertain you and make you happy right now is doing it for themselves, not just you. They may care for you and their intentions may be good, but if he looks deep inside himself, he'll find that honestly he is doing it for himself, not you. To prove this, honestly ask yourself, if you did something wrong but he knows that you won't like for him to rebuke you about it, would he do it anyway, for your own sake? Or would he shrug it off, for his own sake of enjoying the fact that you still like to be around him? Most people are willing to disobey God's Word over and over just to please you. But in the end, where would that get you? It is hard to come to the truth about this I know. But if someone loves you more than they love God, you're not going to grow much closer to God through them, and therefore God does not approve of such a relationship. You're greatest friend is the one who will always tell you the most truth, even if you hate them for it. And this is because they care more about your salvation, than they care about whether or not you will like them in return.
Look at TV preachers today. Now don't get me wrong many of them have some very good messages sometimes. But for the great majority of TV preachers, they are wealthy, and care more about their reputation than they do about your salvation. They stand up there on stage and tell people what they want to hear, whatever makes the people happiest. Why? Because they are more concerned about their reputation. They are more concerned about people continueing to like them, than they are about people's salvation. Those are false prophets, and you can tell because you will never notice them repeat something out of the Bible that someone may be unhappy with hearing.
We may go through heartbreaks and trageties in our life, but there is always a higher purpose. God loved Job just like everyone else. The reason Job went through so many trials was because unfortunatly that is what it eventually took in order to get Job to honestly come to God in repentence, and thus recieve salvation. What is unloving is not the fact that God allows such trials to happen. What would be unloving would in fact be if God prevented such circumstances so that you can live the happiest life you can right now, but forfiet your salvation. And again, this is because God wants you to be saved, He wants you to inherit eternal life, but because of the fact that His character is just and perfect, He requires Himself to judge every soul accordingly. So when you go through trials, it is not because God does not love you. It is in fact because he does love you, and He is allowing such circumstances to take place so that you will grow into a spiritually stronger person.
The way we continue to have joy and get through these struggles is true geniune faith that God is in control. He only allowed such circumstances to happen in the first place to prepare you for a far greater reward. If you put your faith in that, you will recieve it. And as the scripture states, we truly know God when we love others truly in this same way. The Bible says you will tell a false prophet from a true child of God by their fruits. Therefore the true child of God is the one who loves like God loves. He looks out for others, loves and forgives unconditionally, and does what is in the best interest of others, without thought of his own reputation or enjoyment.
Copyright © 2007 T. Scott Morgan | www.the-daily-blessing.com
Please feel free to forward this message on as much as you like, as long as this copyright stays intact and the devotion is not altered. This devotion may NOT be redistrubuted for profit.
Today's Scripture
"He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." - 1 John 4:8
Today's Word
" God is love ." Love is one of the characteristics of God. We know that God is not just love, because He has many characteristics. He is eternal, omnipotent, self-existent, holy, merciful, just, graceful, etc. But God does not ever abandon or withhold one of His characteristics in order to exercise another. Therefore every action that God does is out of love. Even when He expresses His wrath and anger, it is out of love. God is the source of real, pure, eternal love.
God has the right to do whatever He wants because of His sovereignty, just because of who He is. So to the non-believer it would seem as though God cannot be loving, because the fact that He may do whatever He wishes would make it seem as though He is a tyrant. But regardless of how the circumstances may seem, everything God does is out of love for us. So He is not a tyrant, He is completely loving in every way.
Throughout the Bible we see people suffering through great trials and difficulties, but even these were acts of love by God. Job is probably one of the best examples, because he went through such horrible trials which were necessary for his salvation.
Too many people in the world today, especially in western society, have developed the idea that loving someone means to give that person whatever they want, because you want them to be happy. But what many don't seem to understand is that the person who loves you the most is not the one who will always entertain you and get you feeling great right now, but the one who will give you the most truth, and do whatever is necessary for your own good.
Think of a parent and child relationship. We were all disciplined by our parents growing up, and for those of you who are parents or will become parents, you too will discipline your children. It always made us angry or upset, and I doubt just about anyone ever thanked their parents for such things. But is this done out of hatred, or out of love? Love, of course. Parents discipline their children for their own good. The child doesn't understand at the time why he or she must go through this, and it does not make them happy right then, but we know that does not mean the parents don't love them. It means the exact opposite in fact. In the end, it is for the child's own good.
Picture this scenario as another example. Say there are two people who claim to love you. One of them does everything he can to get you to have a good time, and to entertain you and make you laugh, so that you will enjoy spending time with him. His goal is to get you having fun right now, at whatever cost. But now say the other person's focus is on speaking the truth to you. He wants to make you happy and make you have fun yes, but that is not his focus, his focus is on God's Word, speaking the truth. His focus is not entirely on your entertainment and pleasure right now, but on your overall well-being. So if you do something against the Word of God, he will rebuke you. Who do you think would love you more? The person who is more focused on giving you a great time? Or the person who is more focused on speaking the truth to you, even if it would make you angry?
We live in a world today that seems to be driven by entertainment. We're always doing something that has something to do with the internet, TV, or the media. Living seems to be all about entertainment these days, so most of us would be reluctant to say that the person who is less entertaining loves us. Or, at least the one who entertains us the most is the one we would rather spend our time with.
But the truth is, if the person telling you biblical truth is geniune in their faith, they are the one who loves you much, much more. Think about it. Someone who is just trying to entertain you and make you happy right now is doing it for themselves, not just you. They may care for you and their intentions may be good, but if he looks deep inside himself, he'll find that honestly he is doing it for himself, not you. To prove this, honestly ask yourself, if you did something wrong but he knows that you won't like for him to rebuke you about it, would he do it anyway, for your own sake? Or would he shrug it off, for his own sake of enjoying the fact that you still like to be around him? Most people are willing to disobey God's Word over and over just to please you. But in the end, where would that get you? It is hard to come to the truth about this I know. But if someone loves you more than they love God, you're not going to grow much closer to God through them, and therefore God does not approve of such a relationship. You're greatest friend is the one who will always tell you the most truth, even if you hate them for it. And this is because they care more about your salvation, than they care about whether or not you will like them in return.
Look at TV preachers today. Now don't get me wrong many of them have some very good messages sometimes. But for the great majority of TV preachers, they are wealthy, and care more about their reputation than they do about your salvation. They stand up there on stage and tell people what they want to hear, whatever makes the people happiest. Why? Because they are more concerned about their reputation. They are more concerned about people continueing to like them, than they are about people's salvation. Those are false prophets, and you can tell because you will never notice them repeat something out of the Bible that someone may be unhappy with hearing.
We may go through heartbreaks and trageties in our life, but there is always a higher purpose. God loved Job just like everyone else. The reason Job went through so many trials was because unfortunatly that is what it eventually took in order to get Job to honestly come to God in repentence, and thus recieve salvation. What is unloving is not the fact that God allows such trials to happen. What would be unloving would in fact be if God prevented such circumstances so that you can live the happiest life you can right now, but forfiet your salvation. And again, this is because God wants you to be saved, He wants you to inherit eternal life, but because of the fact that His character is just and perfect, He requires Himself to judge every soul accordingly. So when you go through trials, it is not because God does not love you. It is in fact because he does love you, and He is allowing such circumstances to take place so that you will grow into a spiritually stronger person.
The way we continue to have joy and get through these struggles is true geniune faith that God is in control. He only allowed such circumstances to happen in the first place to prepare you for a far greater reward. If you put your faith in that, you will recieve it. And as the scripture states, we truly know God when we love others truly in this same way. The Bible says you will tell a false prophet from a true child of God by their fruits. Therefore the true child of God is the one who loves like God loves. He looks out for others, loves and forgives unconditionally, and does what is in the best interest of others, without thought of his own reputation or enjoyment.
Copyright © 2007 T. Scott Morgan | www.the-daily-blessing.com
Please feel free to forward this message on as much as you like, as long as this copyright stays intact and the devotion is not altered. This devotion may NOT be redistrubuted for profit.