God is Love – February 23, 2018

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
1 John 4:8

God is Love


Daily Devotion – February 23, 2018

Devotion based on 1 John 4:8

See series: Devotions

God is loving. He has given me a body and a soul. He constantly sustains my body with food and drink, clothing and home, friends and family. He constantly sustains my soul with his promises in the Bible.

God demonstrated his ultimate love by sending Jesus, just as he promised in the Bible even before Jesus was born. Even when I was created by God the Father and received from him all kinds of good things, the devil came and led me into disobedience, sin, death, and all kinds of misfortune. There was really no help for me until the eternal Son of God had mercy on me and came from heaven to help me. He didn’t have to do it. It showed amazing love for him to take on a human body, suffer, and die to earn forgiveness for me.

God is so loving that the Bible says these amazing words: “God is love.” To know the definition of true love, I can just look at what God did for me and continues to do. He is not simply loving. He is the very definition of love.

And the love continues. God sends the Holy Spirit to bring me to faith through Word and sacrament. That same Holy Spirit makes me a member of the Holy Christian Church, the group of believers in Jesus. I believe that in this Christian community I have the forgiveness of sins, which takes place through the sacraments and absolution as well as through all the comforting words of the entire gospel.

I note from the verse for today that when I actually know God, I love as a result. God’s love moves me to show love to my family and friends. It moves me to show love to strangers and to people in need. It even moves me and gives me strength to show love to the unlovable. What power! What love!

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, teach me to love others as you have loved me. Help me be more patient and alert to the needs of others, and make me always ready to serve with the gifts you have given me in love. Amen.

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