Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from Kari Jobe singing … I Am Not Alone … singing of our God Who will never leave us; … but the God who desires that His disciples reach out with His love for others.
Highlight Verse[s]: Galatians 6:2 [NKJV] …
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
… Simple command, … not so easy to fulfill in Christ’s Name.
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Highlight Context: Galatians 6:2-10 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul exhorts Christians to help others, … especially other Christians.
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Reference Passage #1 … John 13:34-35 [NKJV] …
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
… Christ’s law of love … to be fulfilled by all who follow Him as disciples.
Reference Passage #2 … Philippians 2:3-4 [NKJV] …
3 Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
… Another of Paul’s exhortations to fellow Christians to reach out in love - Christ’s love - and share the burdens of others.
My Journal for Today: … Our Daily Bread author, Dave Branon, illustrates Christ’s desire that we share His love for mankind in how we share the burdens of others. He wrote: Volunteers from a local church spent a frigid evening distributing food [see attached photo] to people in a low-income apartment complex. One woman who received the food was overjoyed. She showed them her bare cupboard and told them they were an answer to her prayers.
As the volunteers returned to the church, one woman began to cry. “When I was a little girl,” she said, “that lady was my Sunday school teacher. She’s in church every Sunday. We had no idea she was almost starving!”
Today I’m sure there are many in my life - in my sphere of interaction - … yes, even other Christians friends who have burdens I could help carry or needs I could meet if I just knew those burdens or needs. Whether I would reach out and share Christ’s love, as He commanded in His law of love (see John 13:34-35) or as Paul exhorted in his two passages above, I would hope - even pray - that I would. However, any of us who are capable and willing to share the burdens of others, cannot do so if we don’t know those needs.
And I think that all too often the pride of others, even Christians, gets in the way - as it did in the illustration above - of Christians fulfilling Christ’s command to love others by sharing their burdens. I just pray that if I know where I can help, … that I truly will.
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … Lord, show me where I can share Your love; and then give me Your burden and power to do so. … 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, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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