Abide in His Love

For most of us getting up every week day to go to a job is not option. We go because we need to earn a living. We have bills to pay, we need to keep the lights on, and we need to eat. Reality! Today we may need to ask ourselves if the things we are doing for the Lord have also become a job. If we are praying only from a sense of duty, because we “need to do it”, we need to change our motivation.

WE love the lord! Let us never forget that we do what we do because we love Him! It has always been our Fathers intention that our love would increase. John 15:9-12 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.  This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Our personal time with the Lord is huge. We need know that He loves us simply because of who we are who we are, and because of who He is who He is – LOVE! Our Father is love and He loves us so intensely! Today is probably a good day for us to draw aside for a while and let Him once again fill us with the passion of first love!!! Remember how you felt when you were first saved? His word makes it clear that lawlessness will increase and because of it the love of many will grow cold (Matthew 24:12). Now is the time for us to set our hearts, minds, and intentions totally on His love for us and His love for others.

Some love checks: 1. Have I become harsh and judgmental, or do I really believe that mercy triumphs over judgement? 2. Do I love those who appear to be my enemies? Can I picture God’s love, mercy, and redemption on their behalf? 3. Do I turn to my Father as my first option, or do I hold back because of disappointment, or hurt?

How amazing it is that we are invited to abide in His love. This is not an option, it is a foundational need, probably as important as breathing, and His love will rest under everything else we do. If He is love, we also need to be love. It is out of His love that we will abide in a place of sustained powerful prayer. Turn up the love!

Prayer perspective for the week:

1. May we (the church) fully embrace the mantel of intercession that we exercise on behalf of all people and especially all those in authority? 1 Timothy 2:1,2
2. 2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Let us seek the Lord in repentance, and with a whole hearted desire to see our country healed.
3. As we complete our national celebration of the 4^th of July may eternal truth be lifted up, remembered, cherished, and embraced!
4. Pray that forgiveness and racial reconciliation in the spirit of what we are witnessing in Charleston S.C. will spread throughout our nation.