TODAY! 21 day Devotion by: H.R. Lister
Day 13: “What Love Is”
Our God is Love (Love is God’s make up, His DNA, What He consists of)
-He’s not a program
-He’s not a cross
-He’s not a song
-He’s not a building
-He’s not a denomination
-He’s not black or white
-He’s not a democrat or a republican -Our God is Love!!!
1 John 4:8 “He who does not love , does not know God, for God is Love.”
Jesus said in John 13:34-35 “A New commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you also have love one to another.”
-Love should be the mark of “The Church”, The Body of Christ!
Ephesians 4:15 “Speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-
Christ.”
Ephesians 1:22-23 “He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, 23)which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
-All things are subject and have to come under the Authority of the “FEET OF LOVE”!!!!!
-A Church or a Believer not walking in love is a church with no authority over Satan!!!
-The Church today is at war with a lot of things that would take care of themselves if they would wage a Love war instead of continuing to fight on battlegrounds we weren’t equipped to win on!
Colossians 3:12-14 “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering; 13) bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. 14) But ABOVE ALL THESE THINGS, PUT ON LOVE, which is the bond of perfection.”
LOVE’S GOT A BAD RAP…
-When we hear the word “LOVE”, 20 different people will get 20 different ideas but the Bible is not talking about “Natural Love”
-Sometimes what we call love is really one of a few ideas:
• Like
• Lust
• Agreement
• Kindred
• Strong Feelings (food, cars, houses, etc... I Love Pizza) • Emotions
-This is not the Love the Bible is speaking of as the “New Testament Law of Love”
-These types of “Natural Love” is Here today and gone tomorrow...., It only last until:
You don’t like
You’re unattracted
You disagree
You grow apart
appetite changes
You don’t “Feel like it”
The “New Testament Law of Love” that Jesus established and combined every law ever made by God or man into was “Agape” Love, or “The God Kind of Love”.
-This is eternal Love, not here today and Gone tomorrow.....
Matthew 22:37-40 “Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38) This is the first and great commandment. 39) And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40) On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
-It was this Love that compelled God to Sacrifice His Son for you and it was this love that compelled Jesus to fulfill God’s will to Go pay with His own life for our sins...
John 3:16-17 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17) For God did not send His Son into the World to condemn the world, but that the World through Him might be saved.”
1John 3:16 “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us, And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”
-How do you know if you’re walking in The God Kind of Love?
• It’s a sacrifice with no expectations..... No strings attached..... Pure motives...
1 Corinthians 13 defines the “God Kind of Love”, this is not only the Kind of Love we should be walking in but it’s also the Kind of Love that we’re living in because we’re children of God and God wouldn’t expect us to operate in this love if He wasn’t going to....
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (AMP) Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.
5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. 6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. 7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. 8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].
-We don’t have to agree on everything, we don’t have to like the same football team or hairstyle....We don’t have to be emotionally attached or be hang out together buddies, but we do have to Walk in the God Kind of Love towards each other, praying for one another, and believing for the best in every person.....
Paul Prayed for the Church at Philipi in Philippians 1:9-11 “And this I pray, that your Love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, 10) that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Jesus Christ, 11)being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
He Prayed for the Church at Colossi: “That your hearts may be encouraged, being knit together IN LOVE,....”
and for the Church at Ephesus: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded IN LOVE, 18) may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—19) to know the LOVE OF CHRIST, which surpasses knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of GOD!!!!”