Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Psalms 36:5-9
Ps 36:5-9
5 Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. 6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast. 7 How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. 8 They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. 9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.
1 John 4:9-12
9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Love is perhaps one of the most misused and misunderstood words in our modern language. For many it means some kind of soft and fuzzy feeling toward someone or something and for others it just means sex. Some get closer to the true meaning and consider any strong affection as love. But the love of God (that which he is and has toward us, as well as what he expects of us) is shown in both words and action. It is that which seeks the good of another, always looking for the best interest of the object of love.
But love is only a part of the nature of God. He is faithful and cannot lie. His righteousness cannot be changed or broken – regardless of the situation. His justice is demanding and must be fulfilled. All of these make up the nature, the very being of God and who he is. This determines what he does.
His righteousness does not allow him to be in fellowship with those who do not submit to his will because that is sin. The justice of God demands that sin be punished with death and his faithfulness requires it be carried out in every case for every person. Sin demands death. But his love gave Jesus, his Son to live as one of us and then die for our sin. Thus God is true to himself. Since we belong to God and are to be like him, we love each other with the same love as his.
Thank you God for your love that is beyond my ability to really understand. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be yours and to have the promise of eternal life with you when I leave this earth. Make your love so real in my heart that I will love others as you love me. Help me open my heart to your Spirit so he can mold me to be more like you every day. Use me to help others be strong as they seek to overcome sin and live for you. Empower each of us to win each battle against evil every day as we put you first in all things. I pray in the name of Jesus.
Robert
