DAILY DEVOTIONAL – January 10, 2020
“Full Expression”
Prayer: Our most loving Lord Jesus, You laid down all that You had, Your very life, in order that we may know the love of God both now and for all eternity. By the power of Your Word and Spirit, grant us the strength of faith to love as you have loved us. Amen.
Scripture: 1 John 4:7-12
7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
Devotional – “Full Expression”
Some of the smallest things in life have the biggest and most catastrophic affects. A small spark can set off a devastating forest fire, the slightest vibration that can set off an avalanche, and a microscopic virus could threaten the lives of thousands of people at a time.
The smallest things can also be some of the most powerful forces in bringing about life and affecting positive change. Take for example the single microscopic egg and sperm that come together to create the vast and infinitely complex human body, or, something as small as a word of encouragement or a reassuring smile that can breathe life back into someone feeling down and dead inside.
In his book “A Second Touch,” Keith Miller tells the story of a New York business executive, who, after a horrendously long and frustrating day at the office was making his way home through the subway.
He entered Grand Central Station. It was rush hour. The place was a zoo – wall to wall with people. All he wanted was to find his train, get to his seat and go home. The inevitable pushing and shoving ensued as he winded his way to his station and just as he reached the platform he saw his train.
He quickened his pace and just as he did he accidentally banged into a little boy who had been carrying a jig saw puzzle – bits of which were now strewn all over the platform and were being squashed under the shoes and boots of hundreds of people. The businessman looked at the situation, glanced at his train and saw it slowly starting to move. He looked again at the boy and the pieces of puzzle all over the platform…glanced again at the train slowly gathering speed…looked at the little boy – and then put down his briefcase, got down on his hands and knees and picked up every piece of the puzzle.
Putting those pieces back in the box he handed it to the little boy, who looked into the face of the business man and said, “Excuse me sir, is your name Jesus?” I’d give my right arm for someone, someplace to ask me that question this week.
As John tells us in our text for today, no one has seen God. No one still living in this sinful and broken life can see God and live. However, that doesn’t mean that God is not revealing the truth of His ever-present love. How does He do that? Through us. Through His disciples. John says, “No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.”
Love is not something you can frame and put up on the wall or bottle up to serve. Love is only known through the expression of itself. In verse 16 of this same chapter from 1 John, it says, “God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.” God didn’t just say, “I am love.” God showed us His love by creating us and giving us life, and even after we turned our backs on Him in defiance and sin, God showed the amazing extent of His love by sending His Son Jesus to not only reveal the Father’s love to us through His life and teaching, but to GIVE us the Father’s love by dying in our place and rising again from the dead. Those who love God will love others by the power of God’s Spirit and with the same self-sacrificial love with which He loved us. Jesus said in the Gospel of John, chapter 13:34-35, “Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
As inconvenient or hard as it might be at times when in our sinfulness we don’t feel like loving, when we love our Lord by loving others with His nail-pierced hands and feet, when we are willing to set ourselves and our own agenda aside, we fulfill God’s will and purpose for our life and we also then get to experience the full expression of God’s love in our own lives.
God bless you my friends. Thanks for joining me today for another time of devotion in God’s Word, and remember, that God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow. Amen.
