The Upper Room Daily Devotional of
The Upper Room Daily Devotional of Nashville, Tennessee, United States "God Is Love" for Thursday, 21 April 2016 with Scripture: 1 John 4: God Is Love
7-10 My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn’t know the first thing about God, because God is love—so you can’t know him if you don’t love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about—not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they’ve done to our relationship with God.
11-12 My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
13-16 This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He’s given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.
To Love, to Be Loved
17-18 God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.
19 We, though, are going to love—love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first.
20-21 If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.
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This is love: not that we loved God, but that God loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.[1 John 4:10 (NIV)]
Love has been defined in many different ways. One of those ways is that love is something we do. We love. We do. We make a difference. The apostle John saw it differently. Love, he says, is not primarily something we do but something God does — something God is. Our love is a response to God’s love. We can let go of the notion that love — or anything else — starts with us. It begins with God, who is the alpha and omega, the beginning and end, the first and last.
Here’s the great news: We can relax, knowing that love doesn’t originate with us, but comes from an endless, abounding, overflowing, and incredible supply. We can draw on God’s love and let it overflow to and through us. God’s love may lead us to some surprising places and circumstances, but God will already be there. God sets an example of sacrificial love for us. Because God’s love is sacrificial, we can expect to make some sacrifice as well. We love because God first loved us.
Read more from the author, here.
"More from Dan Johnson"
I grew up like most of us in America with a great sense of responsibility: "if it's going to be, it's up to me!" sorts of quotes, and to a large degree that has served me well. It certainly did growing up on a farm in Ohio. But that mentality can lead to an incorrect sense that most everything starts with me, including love. It came as a great shock to me, almost unbelievably so, that my love is not self-initiated but is a response to God's love for me--that God's love is the fountainhead, the artesian well, the Niagara Falls, and as I receive that love am I able to love others and myself.
John made it crystal clear: we love because God first loved us (I John 4:19), and here's the kicker: as recipients of God's love, we are compelled to love God back and love others as Jesus loves them and us.
Pulitzer Prize winning author, Marilynne Robinson, in her brilliant book, The Givenness of Things, reminds us of the words of the early Church Father John Chrysostom who said that if this service of love "were everywhere in abundance, how great benefits would ensue: how there were no need then of laws, or tribunals or punishments, or avenging, or any other such things since if all loved and were beloved, no man would injure another. And if this were duly observed, there would be neither slave nor free, neither ruler nor ruled, neither rich nor poor, neither small nor great" (p. 244).
Six years ago I, backward boy from rural Ohio, was thrust into the national and world spotlight as I led the United Methodist Church in an event called the Gathering for Peace, Understanding and Hope, on the eve prior to the day that Terry Jones announced he would burn the Muslim holy book. The world's attention was on this hateful act. We chose what we believed to be the way of Love--to love our Muslim neighbors, friends, school mates. And 2,000 from all religious faiths came, along with news media from around the world. I felt compelled by the love that loved me to love others. It was an amazing night that has led to wonderful friendships. What I did increased my love and devotion for Jesus and was an expression of both. I love because God first loved me.
May all of us who follow the One who is Divine Love Incarnate live in love for all of God's children. Amen.[Dan Johnson]
The Author: Dan G. Johnson (Florida, USA)
Thought for the Day: “God is love”(1 John 4:8).
Prayer: Dear God, teach us to love as you love, sacrificing our own desires for the good of others. Amen.
Prayer focus: To practice love
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Nashville, Tennessee, United States "The Gold Standard" for Friday, 22 April 2016 with Scripture: Job 23: I’m Completely in the Dark1-7 Job replied:
“I’m not letting up—I’m standing my ground.
My complaint is legitimate.
God has no right to treat me like this—
it isn’t fair!
If I knew where on earth to find him,
I’d go straight to him.
I’d lay my case before him face-to-face,
give him all my arguments firsthand.
I’d find out exactly what he’s thinking,
discover what’s going on in his head.
Do you think he’d dismiss me or bully me?
No, he’d take me seriously.
He’d see a straight-living man standing before him;
my Judge would acquit me for good of all charges.
8-9 “I travel East looking for him—I find no one;
then West, but not a trace;
I go North, but he’s hidden his tracks;
then South, but not even a glimpse.
10-12 “But he knows where I am and what I’ve done.
He can cross-examine me all he wants, and I’ll pass the test
with honors.
I’ve followed him closely, my feet in his footprints,
not once swerving from his way.
I’ve obeyed every word he’s spoken,
and not just obeyed his advice—I’ve treasured it.
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The LORD says, “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice.”[Isaiah 42:3 (NIV)]
My husband’s battle with cancer had the two of us on a roller coaster ride of optimism and dashed hopes. I was so angry with God that I was ready to explode!
In the midst of this terrible trial, I attended a Christian women’s conference. As I sat with folded arms the speaker got my attention when she asked, “Have you ever been angry with God?” Then she read the scripture quoted above. Later I walked to my car thinking, God, this reed is about to snap. If any wick is smoldering, I can't see it.
Back home, I turned to Job 23. As I read each verse, I slapped the page angrily, until I came to verse 10: “[God] knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.” Then I stopped. Knowing that gold is refined through exposure to tremendous heat that separates out the impurities, I saw a connection to my situation. Suddenly, I became aware of the impurities within me — especially jealousy, resentment, and self-pity. I asked God for help and forgiveness. Calm replaced my anger, and peace replaced my fear. In the weeks that followed, I continued to examine my attitudes and to ask for forgiveness. Though God’s words did not change my circumstances, they did change my heart. God does not say that a reed can’t be bruised or that a candle can’t burn low. But God has promised to always be present and faithful in giving us strength to find victory over the struggle.
The Author: Karen S. Weaver (Ohio, USA)
Thought for the Day: Even in troubling times, God’s grace can strengthen me.
Prayer: Dear Lord, we do not understand suffering, but we do know that you take care of us. When we rail against you, replace our anger with trust. Amen.
Prayer focus: Those who are angry with God --------------------
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