Devotions this week based on the Message: “Hope Comes with Being Loved”.
Hope disappears when it’s based on something temporary. Hope remains when it’s based on something lasting.
What makes true, committed love so amazing is it never quits. Ask a couple married for 72 years…unheard of, unless love remains.
Love only remains and lasts when its fully understood and lived.
Too often love leaves because it is only based on emotion. When emotion is high “love” stays. When emotions leave “love” leaves. That’s why so many people “fall in” and “out” of love. Love isn’t something you “stumble” into and “step” out of. Love is something you choose to give and give continuously.
Where do we find this lasting and enduring love?
From the One who loved us first.
John 15:9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.
Jesus chose to love us before we could even love him. Just like a baby is loved even before they can love back.
John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last.
Human secular love often is often superficial, petty, and fleeting. It’s why we often “lose hope” in love. God on the other hand wants you to experience a lasting and enduring love – his love.
1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
This is love that remains. This is love that endures. This is God’s love.
1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. …13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
Remain in God’s love and you will always have certain hope!
Apply: What has been your experience with love? What improves when you ground your understanding and experience of love in Jesus’ gracious and constant love for you?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for choosing us to experience your lasting and enduring love. Keep us close to you and empower us to show to others the same enduring love you have shown to us. AMEN.