Stay Loved

Prayer ~ Jesus, Who am I that You have chosen me? I am honored and humbled to be loved by You, to be chosen. You said to “remain”…meaning to continue, to linger, or wait…in Your love. I certainly never want to leave Your love. Love others the way You loved me. You gave up Your life…for me and for all mankind—if we could just love You…and thus love others. Can I lay down my life—give up my life for others? Am I so selfish that I can’t do that? Only with Your help, Lord. With Your help…I can do all things because You give me strength. Thank You, Lord.

I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!  This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command.  I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me.  You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other. John 15:9-17

 

Meditate. Everyone's basic need is to be loved, but we can be overwhelmed even thinking about the love of a perfect God. How do you show your love for Christ and for others?

 

Love. God is Love—as we read in 1 John 4:8. What more can we say? John continues to write about God and love in in the verses that follow.

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love--not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 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. And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. 1 John 4:7-17

God’s love is so great that it is unfathomable—but Paul describes it well in his prayer for spiritual growth. I want to fall on my knees, too, in worship and prayer.

When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Ephesians 3:14-19

Love God—He is love. Love one another—for we are created in the image of God. Stay loved.

Verses of Salvation ~ LORD, give me your unfailing love, the salvation that you promised me. Psalm 119:41

 

Memory Verse of the Week ~ For He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things. Psalm 107:9

Did you memorize this verse this week? Be satisfied with your memory skills. Review. Review. Review.

 

© 2022 Text, photos, and illustrations by Mickey M. Hunacek. All rights reserved. 

All scripture quoted from the New Living Translation (NLT) unless otherwise noted. 

New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. 

Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Biblical search from Blue Letter Bible - http://v3.blueletterbible.org/search.cfm. 

 

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