The Upper Room Daily Devotional Nashville, Tennessee, United States “Crowding Out Violence" for Monday, 9 February 2015 - Scripture: 1 John 4: Love and God
7 Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. 8 The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how the love of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. 10 This is love: it is not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son as the sacrifice that deals with our sins.
11 Dear friends, if God loved us this way, we also ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love each other, God remains in us and his love is made perfect in us.
Love does no wrong to a neighbor.[Romans 13:10 (NRSV)]
My wife and I were enjoying a beautiful day at our lake home when we received a heartbreaking telephone call from our daughter. The previous evening, she said, our 17-year-old grandson had been the fatal victim of a robbery. We had recently attended his high school graduation, and he planned to enter college in the fall. He was a handsome, loving, and talented young man. Now, suddenly, he was gone.
In shock, I looked out at the sparkling lake, beautiful trees, and green foliage around our home. To me this scene represented the peace that God intends for us. The senseless murder of our grandson was not part of God’s plan. What, I wondered, led the killers to tear a hole in the glory of God’s world? The only answer that came to me was that evil had taken root in their lives because love was not there to crowd it out.
Many people who commit crimes against their neighbors have not experienced God’s love through their interactions with others. Much of the violence in life can be prevented if we Christians extend love to all people.
The Author: Hayes Mizell (South Carolina, USA)
Thought for the Day: How can I use my gifts to share God’s love with children and youth in need?
Prayer: Gracious God, grant us courage to reach out with love to those who do not know you. Amen.
Prayer focus: Young people who do not experience love
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