“The Influence of Love” Devotional 22

            Love: a strong affection, desire, or devotion (as per the Life Application Study Bible, NIV). 

 

            There are many in the world who believe they are unlovable, unworthy of anyone’s love.  There are others that believe that they will never be loved, truly loved for who they really are.  There are yet others that are loved but yet do not believe they are loved due to the many conditions that have been set before them.  Conditions and or expectations that mind you may never be met in their lifetimes.  Others have been the ones that have set these conditions and feel they have every right to do so because they “deserve” to be loved the way they dictate they should be loved.  Those that are loved, fully and wholeheartedly, without any set of conditions or expectations that need to be met are blessed. 

            There is One who loves you for you.  No ands, ifs, or buts that need to be added to this statement: He loves you.  Point blank.  There are no conditions.  You will never lose His love.  There is nothing that anyone can ever do, say or pay to get Him to stop loving you.  You are loved by the Almighty just because.  Isn’t that comforting?  I hope my dear friend this devotional will bring you comfort and a pleasant reminder of just how special you are to God.

            In Ephesians 3:16-19, “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

            The Lord doesn’t just say that He loves you, He demonstrated His love in a very big and extraordinary way!  John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  Romans 5:5-8, “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.  You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.  Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.  But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  1 John 3:1, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!  The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”  1 John 4:9-12, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son in to the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

            The Lord Jesus Christ has given to us a beautiful love note, His Word.  While Jesus was here on earth He said to His future believers, John 17:20-23, “‘My prayer is not for them alone.  I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.  May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me.  May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.’”

            May His love be like a warm blanket that is wrapped around you, which brings not only warmth but hope and encouragement, 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17, “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.”  Psalm 144:2, “He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge…”  Psalm 145:8-9, “The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.  The LORD, is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.” 

            My dear friends, you are loved by God.  God bless you and yours.

(All verses in this devotional are from the NIV)

 

My dear friend I appreciate you and am constantly praying for you.  Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog and read this devotional.  I’d love to read your comments.  Also, would you be so kind as to pass this blog on to your friends and family?

*If you would like to read this same devotional in Spanish or know of someone that would please visit my Spanish blog at www.ministerioreflejandolaverdad.blogspot.com