Devotional Song: Go to this link - Please take the time to see a lyrical video of Fernando Ortega singing the classic hymn… More Love To Thee, which is a prayer and plea to God for Him to impart more of His love through us as His followers in the way HE would want us to live.
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Highlight Passage: Psalm 112: 4-5 … [NKJV] …
4 Unto the upright there arises light in the darkness. He is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous. 5 A good man deals graciously and lends. He will guide his affairs with discretion.
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Highlight Context - NKJV: Psalms 111 and 112 [NKJV] … GO TO THIS LINK …
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Reference Passage #1 - NKJV: Galatians 5: 22-23 [NKJV] … GO TO THIS LINK … Paul witnesses to the fruit of the Spirit, planted in all born-again believers, giving us the enabling grace to witness God’s love to others …
Reference Passage #2 - NKJV: Galatians 6: 9-10 [NKJV] … GO TO THIS LINK … Paul pleads with Christians to be steadfast in their faith, doing good in spite of the trials of this world …
Reference Passage #3: Hebrews 12: 3… [NKJV] … 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
Reference Passage #4 - NKJV: Revelation 2: 1-4 [NKJV] … GO TO THIS LINK … Jesus, speaking to His church (in Ephesus - but to all believers - recognized their diligence in doing good; but warned them not to lose their first love …
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, authored by Dave Branon, hit me right in the heart with conviction as he wrote about God’s desire that we hold dearly to the love that our Lord has given to all believers so that we, as His body, the Church, in this world, can witness that love, through the fruit of the Spirit to others. Branon actually used two of the Psalms (see Psalms 111-112 linked above) to show how God is a God of love (Ps. 111) and a God who imparts His power to allow His believers (Ps. 112) to witness that love in the world.
And we, who declare Christ as our Lord and Savior, must know the truth … that God has imparted to all of us His fruit of the Spirit (see Gal. 5: 22-23) so that we can have the grace, should we surrender to it, to reach out and share these fruit with others, especially those of faith.
Paul expressed this to the Church repetitively and forcefully, doing all he could, inspired by God’s Spirit, to not exhort believers to refuse to grow weary in doing good, in spite of the challenges from the world (see Gal. 6: 9-10). And he was reinforced by the author of Hebrews (see Hebrews 12: 3) and no less than Jesus, Himself, as they exhorted the Church, for example in Revelation 2: 1-4, to continue on in their diligence to witness to God’s love but to avoid losing their ties to our “first love,” Who, of course, is Jesus.
And the latter warning is what we should take away from this ODB devotional today; … that we not allow our (Jeremiah 17: 9) hearts to wane in weariness from the trials of the world or the temptations of Satan, refraining from sharing the love of God with others.
No! … We Christians simply must not pull back from diligently witnessing the love of God to the world. So much of the New Testament, from Jesus through His Disciples, especially post-resurrection, after they were left with the love of God imparted to them through God’s Spirit, is God, through His word, exhorting Christians onward and upward to do good and to shine the Love of God into an ever darkening world.
I don't know about you; but I need to take this to heart; and not grow weary in doing good … today … and tomorrow.
My Prayer for Today … Lord, help me, as I witnessed yesterday in this place to “keep on keeping on” in my faith and to go deeper with your love in me so that I can supernaturally witness Your love in my life to others. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread [TGIF], distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you’ll find a link to read the Our Daily Bread blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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