DEVOTIONS
Called
Most believers understand that they are called, but what most may not understand is that the calling is just an invitation. The next level is to become chosen, which is predicated upon how you respond to the invitation. God has already chosen you, but your choice to follow Him completely is yours alone.
This is the beauty of free will and the power of choice. God created you to know Him and to have an intimate relationship with Him. How do you respond to the calling of God as He calls you to something bigger than yourself? What you decide indicates whether you are just one of those who received the invitation or if you are one who received the invitation and accepted it.
We must remember that God doesn’t sift through humanity and choose one person over the other. God is not a respecter of persons. He doesn’t gather us all together like a sea of humanity and say, “I choose this one. I choose that one.” No. Being chosen depends on what we do. The decisions we make. The sacrifices we make.
We have to get back to inquiring of God what His will is for our lives. We need revelation. We need understanding.
How Deep Is Your Love?
The foundation of love is in Christ, and the term used to explain the unconditional love of God is “agape.” In 1 Corinthians 13, we are taught what love really means, what it looks like, and what it’s about.
Romans 13:10 says: “If you love someone, you will never do them wrong, to love then is to obey the whole law.” Here we are reminded that love does not hurt. We are commanded to love one another earnestly, without doing malicious things to each other. When we do love right, we are obeying the law of God.
Love in its truest form is about servanthood. It is unconditional, and sees only the best in people. Now, this can be challenging to us simply because of our human nature. But when we dwell in God and allow Him to move within us, we are able to love unconditionally through Him who dwells within us. Love is God, and in its purest form, it goes around looking for the best in people; it does not discriminate, loathe or envy.
When we are driven by Agape, we are so full of God’s holiness that we do not have the capacity to focus inwardly. Agape is about doing more—not out of a sense of duty but because we are led by the spirit. We are able to extend ourselves for others and be of service to them without feeling burdened. We are able to do this because we are operating from a place of sufficiency and not scarcity.
Love is not selfish. It puts others first with the confidence that God will provide sufficiently for us. But for His providence to manifest in our lives, we need to first love others, our neighbors, family, friends, strangers, orphans, etc. as God has loved us. He has loved us with all our faults and wrongdoings. But when we come to Him for help, He does not ask us 21 questions on why we did what we’ve done. Even though we were disobedient, He doesn’t respond to us with brashness. Instead, He welcomes us and embraces us without any backlash.
May we learn from our friend and Father how to love genuinely without tallying up people’s iniquities versus our acts of love and kindness. I know as members of a family, parents and spouses to our partners, you find that when our loved ones have offended us in a very big way, we keep tallying up the scores. We do this telling ourselves that on strike five (or whatever threshold you have), consequences must be felt by the offender. We are all guilty of this, and if we don’t acknowledge it, we may be treading on a downward slope to distraction in those relationships which are dear to us.
As we learn to be more like Jesus, and love others fully, may we see others how God sees them, through His eyes. May God give us wisdom to act in agape, especially in situations where our human nature or instincts tend to kick in first. May we extend grace—the same grace God extends to us even at our worst—to all we come into contact with. May we be guided by the spirit to do what is right and pleasing in God’s eyes. May we love unconditionally, driven by Agape.
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The God Who Speaks
The very first time we meet God in the Bible, what is He doing? He’s speaking. In Genesis 1, God speaks the whole world into being. He speaks to the new humans, He addresses each ‘phase’ of creation, and His words define the value and purpose of everything that exists.
The earliest followers of God, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, each experience the reality of a relationship with their God; they all speak to Him face to face. But once their family has grown into a whole nation of God-followers, those individual conversations evolve into something new. God chooses Moses to become the first prophet, God’s first mouthpiece to speak to the community on His behalf. Instead of personal encounters with God, the people of Israel receive God’s ‘Word’ through Moses.
In the centuries that followed, many other prophets passed on what God was telling them to say. They were each responsible to bring God’s Word to His people to communicate what God was saying. They gave direction and encouragement as well as correction and guidance. Much of what they shared is now included in our Bible in what we call the Old Testament. (The bits of the Bible written before Jesus).
So when John introduces Jesus in the first chapter of his biography as “The Word of God, " he’s drawing on this long history of how God communicates. The God who has always spoken to His people over thousands of years, this same God has sent Jesus to be the ultimate Prophet, the complete Message from God, the perfect picture of who He is. And in the same way that the Old Testament became a record of God’s words, now the New Testament records and passes on the life and teaching of Jesus so we can have deep confidence about who God is and what He’s doing.
So when we talk about having the Word of God as our FOUNDATION, we’re talking about how the Bible helps us to experience the reality of our relationship with Him. Our God is a God who speaks; we can’t separate Him from His Word - our faith is built on this idea. We know God through His Word. In fact, we can’t grow in our relationship with God without experiencing a growing love for Scripture. Because in His Word, we discover Hope and Peace - in the Promises of God
Set Apart
As Christ is in the garden praying for all believers, He begins to pray that they would be sanctified or made holy. Many of us struggle with the idea of being sanctified. At its most basic level, it means that we are set apart for service to God.
That is always the way with God. He sets His people apart to do His work in the world. But to be set apart means that we would be different from the world around us. As Christians, we often put emphasis on salvation as moment in time. We can forget that the work of salvation happened and continues to happen in us every day till we are with the Lord. It is a miracle that He has saved us, and every day, He transforms our hearts from the desire to find satisfaction in sin to delighting in obedience to His will.
Sanctification is not something we are comfortable with because it means little by little, we are less like our lost selves, and little by little, we are more like God.
Let’s Pray
Father,
We praise you for the salvation you freely Give us in Christ. We praise you for the gift of the Holy Spirit who is working inside us, giving us the desire to do what is right. Father, help us not to be afraid to be united with you and your work on the cross. Help us not be afraid to be committed to your will and obedient to your desires. Help us live out the sacred duties you have called us to do every day. Help us live as a people who have been set apart not to serve our own interests but to be your hands and feet to a lost and dying world. Be with us always.
In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.