Is Christ’s Grace and Love Living In You?
Good Morning Friends,
At the heart of today’s scripture and devotional are the echoes in our lives of the countless times Jesus engaged people up close and personal. Blind men, hungry people, a short tax collector, the woman at the well, the rich young ruler, His own disciples… the list goes on and on in a chain of people who Jesus loved. I trust you recognize that you are part of that chain of people that are required to put love into practice and in the process have learned that to truly live we must live in God’s reality…beyond activities that merely reflect life. Hopefully you have a list of people you love on. Not everyone does this. But it is how we are to experience His abiding presence. Friends, Jesus gave us His Spirit and teaches us to love deeply… to love actively in person. And grace brings us direction, discipline, instruction and hope to do this. So this is how our scripture today connects grace and love. Paul describes grace in a unique and wonderful way to young Titus, explaining how grace opens doors and leads us into right actions… what is good. This undeserved sovereign favor- grace- teaches us about leadership…that human leadership that is secondary to that of God. Our God is the leader who heals and saves, corrects and blesses calls and judges. God provides the personal leadership that brings us love in our lives to share. We learn to be filled with God’s strength in our actions. This is the leadership that Paul encourages and hopes to see developed in Titus and in us, a grace that teaches us to reflect before we actively engage…a grace that teaches us to belong before we assert ourselves. And here we seek balance in us that encourages others in the hope of the salvation. Is Christ’s Grace and Love Living In You?
Scripture: For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.
Titus 2:11-14 (NRSV)
We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth and will reassure our hearts before him whenever our hearts condemn us; for God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
1 John 3:16-20 (NRSV)
Message: The proof of love is our life in Jesus, whose love is so amazing and divine that it demands not just joy and gratitude but obligation of action. We are no longer spectators; we are in the game to experience Jesus’ absolute love. And so too must our love be. It is to be expressed in action… free and unconditional love. So learn to forgive in light of the fact you have been forgiven. Don’t limit your love by loving only yourself. Be willing to experience that God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we know our selves. We are to experience the eternal life of ethical love. So friends, embrace the wonder and love of the Christmas season so that it becomes alive for you and in you. Prepare by letting go and letting God. Let Him clean up your heart. Let Him rearrange your priorities so that you can make room for Christ in your life. Let Him decorate your life with God’s blessings. Receive the gift of Christ’s love. Submit. Be a receiver of the greatest of gifts… the infinite infant… the coming of the creator, life and light, the song and supper of salvation. Give up your pride. Be a humble receiver of the truth, the way to life. Be born of God… a child. And breathe the words that free you to be true too. Be birthed by belief and become your true selves. That is the truth of Christmas… that He was born to save us by virtue of divine love.
Pray we take an inventory of how much we reflect Christ.
Pray we show the joy of Christian love. Pray we put our love into action. Pray we realize that our only hope of salvation is for Christ to live in us. Pray we abide in the grace and love of God. Pray we learn to love in a way that leaves a legacy. Pray we make the connection between grace and love in our lives so that it might spill over into the lives of others.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 