Daily Devotionals
Daily Devotional: Proverbs 17:9-12
Prov 17:9-12
Whoever covers an offense seeks love, but he who repeats a matter separates close friends. A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool. An evil man seeks only rebellion, and a cruel messenger will be sent against him. Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly.
1 Peter 4:8-9
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.
We live in a world that is obsessed with sex, perversion, promiscuity, and all kinds of lusts. Many call this love but nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, these things are actually the opposite of true love because they are all selfish and have no true interest in the other person. Real love would never do anything that would bring harm or pain to others, but always seeks their good and well-being.
Love caused God to give his Son to die for our sin. Love caused Jesus to give up the glories of heaven to come to the earth and carry out the will of the Father. We see love demonstrated in compassion when Jesus healed the blind and when he not only healed the leper, but he touched him. Love prompted Jesus to feed the multitude of people when they were following him.
Jesus said that a summation of all that God wants from us is love; love for him first and foremost and then love for each other secondly. This is because God is love and we are to be like him. All of the laws, all of the rules, all of the positive commands and all of the prohibitions from God are given because he loves us, and he only wants what is best for us. He wants us to live with him in eternity.
But Jesus got pretty extreme about this love thing. He said we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and then explains that our neighbor is anyone with whom we come in contact. We are to love our enemies and pray for those who mistreat us. We are to love them so much that we are willing to forgive them for whatever they have done or tried to do to harm us, even if they don’t ask for us to forgive them. He even wants us to love those who disagree with us!
O Lord God, God of love and giver of all good things, fill me with your Spirit so that I will show your love to others in all I do. Thank you for loving me, even when I did not show love to you and was only interested in myself. Thank you for loving me enough to forgive me in Jesus Christ. Be with your people so that we can show your love to the world by being one in spirit and by seeking to maintain the unity that you have given to us in Jesus. Be with the leaders of our nation so that we can live in peace and have quiet lives. I pray in the name of Jesus.
Robert
