Devotions this week based on the Message: “BELIEVE: Week 21: LOVE”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Randy Frazee entitled, “BELIEVE.”
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
LOVE…Where does it come from?
Who invented love?
I’m not referring to the term, but the concept, the expression, the reality that we call “love.”
We don’t take courses to discover love, we somehow inherently sense and know what love is. We certainly can sense and express what hate is and we speak against it and seek to get rid of it. Why? Why do we value love over hate? Why is it inherent in a society to seek and desire love as an individual or as a culture?
Philosophers opine about it. Scientists study it. Psychologists reflect on it. Individuals seek it.
So for such a concept, wouldn’t it be great if we knew where it came from so we might better understand it, receive it, and put it into practice?
I’m glad you asked. What always amazes me is what secular society can observe and study and dissect and understand, but yet fail to put the last and most important piece in the puzzle…in this case, “Where does love come from?”
Here’s the answer:
1 John 4:7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.
There could be no clearer answer to the question: “Love comes from God.”
This truth unlocks a ton of truth. No longer do I seek to understand love from merely human understanding or expression, but when I understand the origin of love, I can ask or seek to understand love from the one who created it, gave it, and originated it.
So what truly is love?
…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.
At the heart of love is God’s love for us. Reflect on these three ways:
- He sent Jesus
- 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.
2. He sacrificed for our sins.
- Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
3. He claimed me as his own.
- 1 John 3:1-2 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.
Only with the impact of God’s love rolling in our hearts are we poised to love others…more on that tomorrow.
Apply: Which aspect of God’s love for you impacts you the most?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for loving me even when I was unlovable. Thank you for sacrificing all for me so I could have all with you. Thank you for calling me your child and welcoming me into your family of grace. This is true love! AMEN