One Week Devotional - Walking With God - Love

I have had the idea of putting together a devotional guide that would handle one topic every week. I must admit that virus attacks on my computer and inconsistency have been my greatest enemies of late, but I finally finished week one. I decided to put it on this blog and on my facebook profile under my notes so that you could go through it in the seven days recommended and then give me feedback on the same. Please tell me your experiences after doing the week of study, not only on the content but also on the language and the Bible verses. Please also feel free to send me more Bible verses and suggestions for topics you would like covered. The general goal is to eventually have a full month study followed by a full year devotional guide. You can either send me an email on facebook or on anthonyouma@gmail.com. God bless you as you enjoy this time with Him.

DAY ONE (Unconditional Love)

Genesis 25:28; 27:4, 9, 14

 Isaac loved Esau because of what he could do; he loved the meat Esau cooked. This made it easy to deceive him because his love was not in the person of Esau, but in what he could get out of him. Rebekah loved Jacob, pure and simple. Her love for him was not dependent on what he could do so it was difficult to replace him with something else or to take his place in her heart. Could it be that you are loved because of what you offer, or simply for whom you are, with your strengths and defects? Real uncontaminated love seeks the very essence of a person, looking beyond both the obvious and hidden defects present in the person, and accepting that person for who they are, rather than for what they seem to represent or are able to offer.

 Thought for the day: what steps can you take to make this unconditional love a reality in your life?

DAY TWO (Expressing Love)

Genesis 29: 15-30

Jacob loved Rachel and worked 14 years for her. The first seven years seemed as just a few days to him because of his great love for her. After being tricked by his uncle into marrying Rachel’s sister instead of her, he worked another seven years and was finally given his intended wife. It is amazing that a man can love a woman so intensely that all the work he has to put in and all the time he has to wait seems as nothing to him. This is especially strange in our current fast-paced culture with its demands of instant gratification. How awesome it would be if a man would wait patiently for his woman, not giving up on his pursuit of her even in the face of time constraints and intensive amounts of work needed before he can get her. How patient was this girl to wait for the man as he worked for her, and how amazing the fact that once she knows he is the one she desires, she accepts him when the time is right without fuss.

Thought for the day: How do you express your love for the person you desire to make happy?

 

DAY THREE (God’s love towards us)

John 3:16-17; Romans 5:6-8; 1 John 4:7-8

The love God has for us is demonstrated by His giving. He gives His very best with no guarantee of returns on this investment. He gives with the prime intention of our benefit. The blessing of the Lord makes rich and adds no sorrow (Proverbs 10:22). God loves us with an everlasting love and has great plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11-12; 31:3). We are told that while we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us. He loved us before we even knew Him and He gave up his life for us, he became a curse so that we could be blessed for ‘cursed is he who hangs upon a tree’. Jesus gave up everything and became nothing so that we who were nothing could have everything. It is well said that ‘to have everything without Him is to have nothing, and to have him without anything else is to have everything.’

Thought for the day: In what ways has God demonstrated His love towards you?

DAY FOUR (A jealous God)

Exodus 20:1-6

God is jealous for you. He desires your affection and attention and will not share your heart with anyone. He is either Lord of all, or He is not Lord at all. He promised to visit the transgression of the fathers upon their children to the third and fourth generations, and yet promised to show covenant faithfulness to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep His commandments. In John 14:21, Jesus says that those who love Him are those who keep His commandments. It is interesting to note that the punishments are not as far reaching as the blessings are, and that goes to show that God is more interested in our prosperity than in our pain. How blessed that such a jealous God still allows His love to overshadow the jealous nature that won’t let Him share us with anyone or anything else.

Thought for the day: How does the knowledge that God won’t share you with anyone or anything else impact your life?

DAY FIVE (Loving your neighbor)

Zechariah 8:14-17; Proverbs 17:17

The commandment says to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Who is your neighbor? The parable of the Good Samaritan sheds lots of light on this. My neighbor isn’t necessarily the person who I know well or who always has my best interests at heart. My neighbor is the person who is next to me, regardless of our relationship or lack thereof. We are instructed in Zechariah to speak the truth to one another and not to plan any evil in our hearts against one another. Some of us would say that this could never happen with us, but how many times have we gossiped and slandered people? How many times have we repeated things told to us in secret, in the presence of others who were not supposed to know this information? Loving others means that we desire the very best for them, sometimes even at our own expense. It means giving up our comforts so that others can have less discomfort.

Thought for the day: What are you going to do for your neighbor today?

 

DAY SIX (Do not love the world)

1 John 2:15-17

We are IN the world, and yet are not OF the world. We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are instead, spiritual beings having a human experience. We do not belong to this order of things; we are created for an infinitely greater experience of life, one that this world cannot offer us. We live in perishable tents, called bodies, which will fade in glory with age and eventually grind to a halt and cease to exist. The spirit in us will be raised on the final day to meet with our Maker and to experience the fullness that He had planned for us before time began. With this in mind, can we allow ourselves to get so indulged with this present world that we lose sight of the indescribable glory that is promised to us? God forbid. We should keep our eyes on things above and not on earthly things (Col 3:1-2), for only then will our focus be fixed on eternal matters and then we can be emboldened to refrain from placing too much value on this world.

Thought for the day: What ways can you use to help you shift your focus from this world, to the eternal glory with God?

DAY SEVEN (Loving God)

Matt 22:34-40

God already loves us with an everlasting love and is slow to anger and abundant in love towards us. He overlooks so many of our failures, contrary to the opinion that He is a vengeful creator just waiting for us to slip so that He can punish us with His celestial cane. We love Him because He first loved us. He created us for Himself, for us to enjoy Him and for Him to enjoy us. We are in His own image and likeness and are supposed to like the stuff He likes and to be displeased by the things that displease Him. If we truly love Him, then we will obey His commandments (John 14:21), which means that love for Him should automatically lead to obedience to Him. His yoke is easy and His burden is light, therefore He will not require of us that which would be of no benefit to either Him or us. He cares for us, therefore we should cast our cares upon Him. He died for us, so that we could live with Him eternally. How else can we respond to such a loving God?

Thought for the day: In what ways can you express your love to God?