May 6, 2018
1st RECEIVE and be SECURE in God’s love for you!
Receive… gratefully accept what God is freely giving you.
John 17:22-23
22 For the very glory you have given to me I have given them
so that they will be joined together as one
and experience the same unity that we enjoy.[s]
23 You live fully in me and now I live fully in them
so that they will experience perfect unity,[t]
and the world will be convinced that you have sent me,
for they will see that you love each one of them
with the same passionate love that you have for me.
It’s impossible for you to love God unless He has loved you first.
Everything comes from God; from Him, through Him, and to Him are all things. Love comes from God, goes through God and ends up back unto God.
If God ever commands anything of you, you can only fulfill that command by first receiving the very thing that He wants from you. From Him, through Him, and to Him; it’s a cycle, and we are right in the middle of it.
1John 4:16-19
16 We have come into an intimate experience with God’s love, and we trust in the love he has for us.[o] God is love![p] Those who are living in love are living in God, and God lives through them. 17 By living in God,[q] love has been brought to its full expression in us[r] so that we may fearlessly face the day of judgment,[s] because all that Jesus now is,[t]so are we in this world. 18 Love never brings fear, for fear is always related to punishment. But love’s perfection drives the fear of punishment far from our hearts. Whoever walks constantly afraid of punishment[u] has not reached love’s perfection. 19 Our love for others is our grateful response to the love God first demonstrated to us.[v]
DON’T pretend, but PRACTICE loving others daily wherever you go!
1 John 3:16-18
16 This is how we have discovered love’s reality: Jesus sacrificed his life for us. Because of this great love, we should be willing to lay down our lives for one another. 17 If anyone sees a fellow believer in need and has the means to help him, yet shows no pity and closes his heart against him, how is it even possible that God’s love lives in him? 18 Beloved children, our love can’t be an abstract theory we only talk about, but a way of life demonstrated through our loving deeds.
Don’t measure your love for others. Practice until your affections and compassion rises within you! Look what you can LOVE in others.
Ephesians 3:14-19
14 So I kneel humbly in awe before the Father of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, 15 the perfect Father of every father and child[e] in heaven and on the earth. 16 And I pray that he would unveil within you the unlimited riches of his glory and favor until supernatural strength floods your innermost being with his divine might and explosive power. 17 Then, by constantly using your faith, the life of Christ will be released deep inside you, and the resting place of his love will become the very source and root of your life. 18–19 Then you will be empowered to discover what every holy one experiences—the great magnitude[f] of the astonishing love of Christ in all its dimensions. How deeply intimate and far-reaching is his love! How enduring and inclusive it is! Endless love beyond measurement that transcends our understanding—this extravagant love pours into you until you are filled to overflowing with the fullness of God!