The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – 1 John 4:19–21 (day seven) 

One of the things I have noticed in our time here in Europe with the First Youth Worship, is that America is not the only country that is polarized. The tension that we are feeling and the issues we are facing in the United State are prevalent around the globe also. Why is that? Why are we so divided? You may be able to draw some conclusions that may attribute to the tension such as social media or cable news, but the short answer is that we are more divided than ever because the devil wants us to be.

We as christians need to be the peacemakers in the world to fight against the enemy’s division. We need unity. I get that it can be difficult in a time where a tribe may cancel you if you do not agree with their particular set of beliefs, but this passage sets the standard for us and sets the example for which we Christians should be striving: to love our brother. We cannot say we love God if we hold hatred or disdain for those who do not think the way that we think. We are called to love. Love your brother (love your neighbor) even when you don’t agree!

Re:Verse passage – 1 John 4:19–21 (day six) 

Loving others is our superpower. We are never more like God than when we love. It’s why John writes, “No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.” In other words, when we love like God loves, God reveals himself to others through us. And that is a pretty powerful and cool superpower!

Scott is absolutely right. “What if people see our love for each other, and that leads them to discover and understand God’s love for them (Friday’s blog)?” As image bearers, we were always intended to reflect God’s love (sin messed that up), so when we do, it has a superhuman way of lifting others’ eyes and ears up to see and hear God.

Flex your superpower today!

Re:Verse passage – 1 John 4:19–21 (day five) “for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

For decades, as a Youth Pastor, I would encourage students to take a few minutes during most every gathering time and give out “Holy Hugs”. For some students who were newer to the group (Christians and non-Christians) I could see how unique and captivating this time was. But I also saw in their eyes, an amazement and curiosity about how fellow teenagers not only had genuine love for one another, but also were willing to visually and verbally express it.  Those hugs, handshakes, and words of encouragement we exchange with other believers are indeed “holy because they reflect the love of God. What if people  see our love for each other and that leads them to discover and understand God’s love for them (the gospel). I’ve seen that happen many times. What if people conclude “the one who loves his brother that he has seen, must love and be loved by God who he has not seen.” Let’s love each other well, and may that love lead others to find the love and life that Christ came to give.

Re:Verse passage – 1 John 4:19–21 (day four)

“God is love” is a phrase that gets a variety of responses from people. I’ve heard many respond to this sentence with “yes, but…”

In an attempt to make sure our view of God doesn’t devolve into a mushy Valentine’s Day-like sentiment, we want to say, “Yes, God is love, but he is also holy, just, judge, king.” Fill in your word of choice. But when we do this, I think it reveals that we’re using the wrong definition of love. We’re using an earthly definition of love to try to understand something that’s divine. It’s only natural for us to try to use earthly frameworks to define heavenly concepts, but our earthly view of love is limited.

What if instead, when we hear the phrase “God is love,” we consider that phrase in a new framework, “Whatever God is – that’s what love is.” Now, love isn’t just a nice sentiment or or a particular emotion. It’s certainly not fluffy or shallow. Now, love is defined by all that God is – just, holy, merciful, sacrificial, fierce, powerful. This list goes on. How might this change the way we think about loving our neighbor?

Re:Verse passage – 1 John 4:19–21 (day three)

“We love, because he first loved us.”

What is the origin of love? Aquinas’s famous definition of love – “to will the good of the other” – is not the origin of love, but an attempt to put into human language its glorious essence. How did it start, though? One might say that God invented love, or that love began when God began to love. But the Bible teaches us something more fundamental. God did not invent love. God did not begin to love. Otherwise, God would have existed without love until he devised it, or until he commenced loving. If God is love, as John says, that cannot be. God is not God unless he loves. For God to live is for God to love. Human beings found out about love from the one who has always loved.

Re:Verse passage – 1 John 4:19–21 (day two)  

And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also. Vs. 21

For God so loved…Love the Lord with all your heart…This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us.

How do we truly reflect the Imago Dei in our lives. The answer seems almost too apparent, we love. If this isn’t abundantly clear, re-read John’s gospel, and all his letters. If there is one characteristic that demonstrates the nature of our creator, it is love. We are instructed over and over again to display this trait in every way that we can. Love the Lord – love each other.

We spend so much time complicating that command. We attach qualifications to our love, even in our families, our churches, our friendships. Loving someone doesn’t mean that we agree with everything they say or do, and it doesn’t require them to meet a standard before we start to love. Love first, figure out to get along later.

Re:Verse passage – Jeremiah 29:10–14 (day seven)

This passage contains another “coffee cup verse” or as I like to call them “tattoo verses.” These are verses that nominal Christians will know by heart, but it is obvious that they don’t recognize the context surrounding them. I saw many teammates in football who would have tattoos of Bible verses, but that ink was the only thing that told me they had ever opened a Bible.

People want to believe that God has a plan for them, plans that “give [them] a future and a hope.” Yet, they aren’t willing to go past that verse to see how God defines and modifies that promise. The future hope is only becomes fully recognized through personal prayer and sincere seeking. If you truly want to know the future that God has laid out for you, you have to be seeking Him, and in order to find him, you have to be seeking Him “with all your heart.” 

Do you feel like you are seeking God with all your heart? What do you think might happen if you put more effort into your seeking? Don’t you want to know what God might show you if you sought Him with all your heart!?

¹⁹ And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. 1 Corinthians 15:18

Though the world may be in turmoil, a promise of transformation awaits.  This is the assurance of God in Jesus. Just as Jeremiah instilled hope in the exiles, promising a return to a restored Jerusalem, Paul urges us to live with the same confidence in the midst of our current challenges.

For Paul, the promise of Jesus’ return and the resurrection of the dead kept him committed to Jesus even when life was tough. His hope was that one day, life as it should be would be fully restored. We live with the same hope.