Discipleship Point and Prayer
1 John 4:7-16
God’s Love and Ours
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
~ 1 John 4:10-11
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
Discipleship Point
Following Jesus
John 15:16-17.
“You did not choose me,” Jesus said, “but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last. Then my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.”
Following Jesus means living like Jesus; there is no following Jesus without loving the people Jesus loves. We don't get to choose. Just like we didn't choose Him, but He chose us, we don't get to choose whom we love. He chooses whom we love and commands us love them. God's mission includes loving the least of these. And if we’re honest, it’s good to know that He has commanded others to love us because sometimes we are in the position of being the least.
Discipleship Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, thank You for choosing me. Help me develop a fuller picture of You through the Word and Spirit that I might better follow You as Lord and Savior – and better love others in Your name, especially “the least”. May I honor You and Father God in gratitude for such a generous act on your part. So I pray in Your name. Amen.
Micro-Meditation
Psalm 127:1-5
A song of ascents. Of Solomon.
- Unless the Lord builds the house,
the builders labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
the guards stand watch in vain. - In vain you rise early
and stay up late,
toiling for food to eat—
for he grants sleep to those he loves. - Children are a heritage from the Lord,
offspring a reward from him. - Like arrows in the hands of a warrior
are children born in one’s youth. - Blessed is the man
whose quiver is full of them.
They will not be put to shame
when they contend with their opponents in court.
Read the versus of the Psalm.
Mark the words or phrases that catch your attention.
Meditate: talk (or better, write) with God about those words. Ask him to impress things upon your heart and mind; expect responses.
Teaching or Command of God
Hebrews 2:11,13b
Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters… “Here am I, and the children God has given me.”
The Promise
Hebrews 2:14-15
Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Pondering Point
Children, like arrows, need to be shaped well to fly straight and guided with skill to reach the intended target. And you may only get one shot.
Lord, shape me as Your arrow and help me shape any arrows that you have placed in my quiver! Amen.