POWERFUL CHRISTIAN DEVOTION ON LOVE
An Affirmation Prayer Of Love
Thank you, Father, for this journey with this POWERFUL CHRISTIAN DEVOTION ON LOVE. Oh, Glorious and Mighty God, I pray that I would “be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of Your might.” Yesterday I was reminded through Janean’s story that when life brings hardship that the enemy capitalizes and begins to attack your character and my trust in you. I pray that I would be aware of Your full armor which You have already given me so that I may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the Devil, the world and the flesh (Eph. 6:10,11). Thank You, Father, in Jesus’ precious and gracious name. Amen.
Agape Love Is New Covenant Love
Yesterday you read about Janean’s story and the abandonment of her earthly father and how it had impacted her view of her heavenly Father. On this, the last day of our POWERFUL CHRISTIAN DEVOTION ON LOVE, we’ll talk about how the New Covenant that Jesus ushered in deepens His love for us through His grace and mercy.
Agape Arises Spontaneously from the Heart
In his book, “The Lost Secret of the New Covenant”, Malcolm Smith writes,
Agape is not wakened or created by the beauty of its object, but arises spontaneously from the heart of God. Therefore, it is a love that cannot be earned or deserved, for it springs from the very heart of God upon all persons.
This love reaches out to the spiritually ugly and those who are out of harmony with Him. It even reaches out to the enemy that would seek to destroy Him. Similarly, it is not our spiritual beauty (goodness) that awakens Him to love us. Hence, it is not our acts of goodness or track record of righteousness that arouses His loving attention toward us.
God’s love for us originates in who He is, not in our being lovable. He is the source of His love, its reason and energy. He loves us because it is His nature to love.
TAKE A MOMENT AND LET THIS SINK IN.
AT THIS VERY MOMENT, YOU ARE THE FOCUS OF GOD’S PASSIONATE AND UNCONDITIONAL LOVE. HE LOVES YOU WITH HIS ENTIRE BEING.
God Is Love
So why do the secular humanist and religious legalists believe the Gospel especially the concept of agape-love is foolishness and a scandal to reason? However, the Gospel of Jesus Christ declares to all men and women, they are loved by God, not because of any self-worth or accomplishment, but because of who God is – He is love (1 John 4:8)!
The love of God initiates the covenant through His Son Jesus Christ, and we respond by believing in faith in His agape-love. The fact that He is divine, unconditional agape-love is the foundation of the covenant and the truth upon which you can build your entire Christian walk.
Understand and live in this reality, and your behavior will change in response to such glorious love that it will leave you surrendered in the worship of Him. Why do we love God? As Apostle John says,
We love, because God first loved us (1 John 4:19).
Agape Love A More Excellent Way
But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way (Agape Love). If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
- “Agape Love is patient,
- love is kind and is not jealous;
- it does not brag and is not arrogant,
- does not act unbecomingly;
- love does not seek its own,
- is not provoked,
- does not take into account a wrong suffered,
- love does not rejoice in unrighteousness,
- rejoices with the truth;
- love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
- Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 12:31, 13:1–8).
God’s Love Is Divine And Eternal
This is commonly known as the love chapter, the love described in this passage defines the eternal divine love of God. It is divine in the sense that agape-love embodies who He is. It is eternal in the sense that His love never fails and endures all things forever.
Therefore, as a believer who struggles between living in the flesh or the spirit you can struggle with your own selfish needs or woundedness and fail to agape-love others. In other words, as you believe in and are filled with His agape-love you can be empowered through the Spirit to pour out His agape-love to others as He wills. This confirms the theology that you cannot agape-love others without His agape love indwelling in you first.
A new commandment I (Jesus) give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. . .” (John 13:34).
God Loves You Personally!
Read the following verses and learn about the truth that God loves you in a personal and intimate way.
for the Father, Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father” (John 16:27}.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I (Jesus) have loved you, that you also love one another (John 13:34).
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, ordistress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? But in all these things we
overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35–39).
NOTHING, NOTHING, NOTHING
CAN SEPARATE YOU FROM THE LOVE OF gOD
Try Journaling the Following Question
Father God, my response to Your heart of love You have freely given to me when I didn’t deserve it is. . . (Please use crayons and a large piece of paper and draw God as you see or imagine Him to be.) Above all, it doesn’t matter whether you are an artist or not. It’s the process happening in your heart rather than the finished product. Share your art with your spouse or a loved one.