Romans 8:35-39 [NIV] |  ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” ³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, or nor heavenly rulers neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

My grandson, Charlie, recently discovered that he is now tall enough to perform a new trick. He can now reach up to the stove, turn the knobs, and watch the flame come on. Not only that, but he is also tall enough to turn the door knobs. It used to be that we could close all the doors and he would be fine. Now, he can get out the door in a flash! I’m not sure how kids can survive these days!

Raising kids sometimes requires us to give them a little discipline to keep them from doing something dangerous, like setting the house on fire or getting hit by a car. Even in that time of correction, we still love them because they are our children. They are part of our family.

So, what can separate us from the love of God? Nothing. Romans 8:38 declares that neither life nor death can separate us from the love of God. Think about that. Those are the two extremes of existence: either we are alive or we are dead. Neither of those can separate us from the love of God. Neither can angels, principalities, nor powers – the extremes of power in the universe.

The two extremes of time cannot separate us from the love of God – things present or things to come. Height and depth are the two extremes of distance and they cannot separate us from the love of God. In other words, nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God – nothing! It is incredible how secure we can be – we are loved by God! He might have to chasten and lovingly discipline us, but even in those times of discipline, He loves us, and nothing can separate us from His love.

Love in Action:
Can you recall a time God disciplined you, his child, for your won good?

1 John 4:16-18 [NIV] | ¹⁶ 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. ¹⁷ This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

The day began just as any other, with ten-year-old Philip working barefoot in the garden…until he heard a noise off in the distance unlike anything he’d ever heard before. He dropped his basket of vegetables and hopped over the fence almost as though the music was pulling him along. Forgetting to even knock, he let himself into a large manor house. There sat a woman playing the piano with her back to him, and he listened in silence until she finished. He exclaimed, “Oh, please don’t stop. That’s the most beautiful sound I have ever heard!”

Startled, she promptly scolded him and commanded him to leave and never come back. Shortly after, the young man left home to work in a lumber camp, but began training vocally, and went on to become the famous singer and composer, Philip Bliss. One day he was in Chicago at one of D.L. Moody’s services. During the congregational singing, Moody picked Philip’s extraordinary voice out of the crowd and met with him after the service.

Philip did not let that one experience as a child define his life. He pursued music and a knowledge of God. He later became a traveling evangelist using his voice for the Lord. Time after time he heard congregations sing “Oh How I Love Jesus” and it got him thinking: “Have I not been singing enough about my poor love for Jesus and shall I not rather sing of His great love for me?”

From that thought, he penned the lyrics of “Jesus Loves Even Me”:

        I am so glad that our Father in Heav’n

       Tells of His love in the Book He has giv’n;

       Wonderful things in the Bible I see,

       This is the dearest, that Jesus loves me…

Why not take a moment today to re-visit this beautiful song and God’s timeless love for you? Whatever you are facing, trust His wonderful love. You have so much to be glad about.

Devotion provided by Adonis Lenzy, and BroadStreet Publishing.

1 John 4:7-12  [NIV] | ⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹ This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰ This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

From the moment Teddy walked into Ms. Thompson’s fifth grade classroom, she took an immediate dislike to the boy. She knew it was wrong. He was dirty, he smelled funny, and his intellect left a lot to be desired. She began to take immense pleasure in marking red x’s on his papers.

As the holidays approached, Ms. Thompson felt compelled to look up Teddy’s school history. What she found made her wish she had done so sooner. Teddy had started out well in first grade, but his mother’s illness while he was in second grade and her subsequent death during Teddy’s third grade year sent him into a spiral from which he had not recovered.

It was the last day before the Christmas break and Ms. Thompson’s desk was piled with gifts from the students. She worked her way down to the very last gift – a package wrapped with a brown paper bag, sealed with masking tape and decorated with hand-drawn Christmas trees and red bells. Giggles and snickers rattled through the room as she opened the gift and two items fell out onto her desk – a gaudy rhinestone bracelet with a couple stones missing and a half-empty bottle of cheap perfume. In an attempt to quell the laughter, Ms. Thompson stated that it was a lovely gift. She put the bracelet on her wrist and applied a dab of the perfume behind each ear.

After all the other students had left, Teddy came up to the desk and said, “Ms. Thompson, I’m glad you liked the gifts. Mom’s bracelet fits you perfectly, and you smell just like her now.”

Teddy left and Ms. Thompson locked the door behind him. She sat down at her desk and began to weep over her lack of love for the young lad.

God had to break her heart that day. It is so important to try to see people’s situations. They might not appear like us or they might turn us away by something about them, but God doesn’t turn away from us. When we start to understand the bigger picture, we start to see the person differently. If Jesus died for everyone, and we are to have the love of God in our lives, we must love them as well.

The story of Teddy and Ms. Thompson did not end on that Friday in December. When the students returned after Christmas, Ms. Thompson devoted all her energy towards tutoring Teddy. By the end of the school year, he had caught up and successfully moved on to the next grade. She lost touch with him when he moved to a new school.

Seven years later, a letter arrived in her mailbox. “Dear Ms. Thompson, I wanted you to be the first to know that I will be graduating second in my high school class.”

Four years later, another letter arrived informing her that Teddy was graduating from university at the top of his class. The third letter arrived a few years later: “Dear Ms. Thompson, I wanted you to be the first to know that as of today I am Theodore Stallard, M.D. I am going to be married in July, and I wanted to ask if you would come and sit where my mother would have sat. Dad died last year and I have no family left.”

Ms. Thompson had made a decision to love the unlovely and help the one who needed help. As a result, not only was Teddy’s life changed, but her life was also changed. That is what understanding the love of God can do in our lives.

Before God, we all have an odor; we are all unkempt. All have sinned. When God looks at us, there is nothing lovely about us. God could have turned away from us, but He is love. So instead, He sent His Son to die in our place. Jesus died not as a martyr, but as a willing sacrifice. Do not ever forget that: God loves you because God is love.

Love in Action:
Is there someone in your life that you find hard to love? Make a daily reminder to pray for them and ask God to help you love those you come into contact with.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, help me to love others as you love me. Forgive me for the time I look down on other. Help me to see other as your children. Amen

Special  thanks to In Grace with Jim Scudder, Jr. for providing this devotion.

1 John 4:10-11  [NIV] | ¹⁰This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

The book of 1 John is an unusual book. It was written by John the Apostle, also known as the apostle that Jesus loved. In 1 John, we find the word love in some form forty-six times. When we find the word love in these verses, it is the Greek word agape. Agape is a unique word. It wasn’t used much in Greek literature outside of the Bible. It is unique because it describes a certain kind of love that is unfathomable by finite people created by an infinite God.

God has revealed Himself in this book, and He starts by telling us that we need to love sacrificially, without expectation. Let us love one another; this is where we start. Scripture is the place to look to if we want to learn about God’s love and how we can love.

If we can learn how to love each other in the body of Christ when we are so different, then we can learn to love others. We can learn how to love our spouse and children. We can learn how to love our neighbors and coworkers.

How about this? The Bible also tells us that we need to show agape love even to our enemies. This is hard. Before we can love each other and even our enemies, we must understand God and His love. Let us love one another for love is of God.

When we are trying to love one another in a way that only God can, it seems that we are setting ourselves up for failure. We are being commanded to unconditionally love the unlovely, but we can’t do it. Only God can do it, because it is Who He is. Therefore, we can only do it when He is doing it through us. We can only do this when we are walking in the Spirit. When we allow Him to work in us and through us, then we can accomplish something supernatural because it is God doing it.

Prayer:
Lord, thank you for the deep love you have for us. Help me to share that same love with others everyday of my life. Amen.

Psalm 23:1-3  [NIV] | ¹The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. ²He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, ³he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake.

When God created the heavens and the earth, the Bible says that He rested on the seventh day. Now, if God took a rest break in His schedule, then it’s safe to say that you and I will need a rest break as well along our journey. Take the approach of doing everything in your ability to accomplish His plan for your life and then rest in the assurance that He will take care of making sure it comes to pass.

A lot of people reach a stage of burnout simply because they do not rest. They do not take the time to replenish their strength. Every now and then make sure to stop and just breathe for a moment. Taking a break from constant activity is something that can actually keep you energized as you continue to walk out God’s plan for your life.

Make no mistake about it. God wants His children to rest. When you rest, it allows you to replenish your physical, mental, and emotional strength that keeps you fighting the good fight of faith. In the book of Psalm, David gives the analogy of a shepherd making his sheep lie down and take a rest. A shepherd would do this in order to make sure his sheep were rested for the journey that was ahead of them. Sometimes the sheep would fight and struggle, but because the shepherd cared for the sheep, he would make them lie down.

Just as a shepherd cares for sheep, God cares for you. He knows the journey that lies ahead for you and He will nudge you when it’s time to rest for a moment. Taking a rest break doesn’t mean you are losing ground; it just means you are getting prepared for the journey ahead into greater things.

Prayer:
Lord, I praise and thank you for being the shepherd of my life. Help me to find rest in you for the days ahead. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Action Plan:
I will find my strength and the Lord as well as rest.

Devotion provided by Adonis Lenzy, and BroadStreet Publishing.