Love is tough.
Today’s devotion is based on Week 1 of “Tough Love”: Sets boundaries! (WATCH HERE)
Love is tough.
It’s just hard to love. It is.
For many different reasons.
- It’s not always easy to know what love looks like.
- I am naturally more selfish than loving.
- Definitions and messages of love from our culture are confusing.
- Love gets defined by movies and Hollywood.
- Love sometimes means saying “no” to someone or something.
Love is tough. It just is.
With Valentine’s Day at the center of the month of February, our message and devotion series is going to explore different aspects of love what makes it tough as well as what tough love looks like when we properly apply it.
But let’s start where love starts: In the heart of God.
Love can only and must be defined by God…no one else. Only when we embrace and embody the love of God can we properly love others. Culture skews love. Human love is flawed because of sin and a perfect example can’t be found.
Except in God’s love.
Here are three Scriptures that help define what love is…from God’s perspective and application.
- Love is sacrificial, defined by the sacrifice Jesus made for us…even though we didn’t earn or deserve it.
1 John 4:7 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.
- Love is selfless, not selfish.
1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
- Love models the love Christ has shown to us.
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
This is the only love that can fill us and enable us to love others even when it’s tough. When we see Jesus loving us when we make it difficult, or giving us guidance and boundaries even when we don’t want them, we understand that love is tough and we need tough love.
The ability to do both in our lives rests firmly in the love that God has shown to us.
Apply: What makes love tough for you?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for loving me, even when it’s tough and for showing tough love when I need it most. Both are a gift from you to bless me and enable me to be a blessing to others. AMEN.
Can I ask a favor?
Today’s devotion is based on Week 4 of “Resolve”: Listen to the right source! (WATCH HERE)
“Can I ask a favor?”
“Sure, what is it?”
“Can I borrow your trailer on Saturday?”
“Sure, no problem.”
Asking of a favor from someone implies that you know that they are not obligated to grant the request. You are asking to tap into the potential generosity of their heart to help you with a situation. If they choose to grant your “favor,” you are grateful. If they choose not to or can’t, ideally, you are understanding.
When Jesus came into the synagogue of Nazareth and read from the scroll of Isaiah, he read, the following: (Luke 4:18-19)
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
…19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Perhaps one might read this and react, “That’s awesome! I get to ask God for any favor and he will give it to me for a year.”
No, Jesus didn’t come to give us a year of our personal requests or to be our personal “sugar daddy” that takes care of everything we want.
No, rather the significance of Jesus’ words is telling us that he is ushering in the reality of God’s grace, God’s undeserved love…God’s favor. The year of the Lord’s favor has nothing to do with the performance of his people. It has everything to do with the heart of the Lord to bring his mercy and grace to people.
No doubt, the people hearing Jesus read these words heard overtones of the “Year of Jubilee” which God gave for Moses to implement in the worship and civil life of Israel every 50 years. The year of Jubilee (Leviticus 24:10-17) was a year that marked forgiveness of debts, restoration of property, and rest for the land. It was a year that was to bring spiritual restoration and renewal to the land of Israel. It was a picture of what Jesus would fulfill.
The “year of the Lord’s favor” is really every year in which we live. Because we live under the completed work of Christ, the Lord freely forgives our debt of sin, he restores to us that from which sin separated us, and gives our hearts rest in the peace that we are right with God.
It’s not just a promise on a page, but a reality that is based on the completed work of Jesus. It is a gift from the heart of the Lord that wants us to realize and live in the grace and forgiveness he brings.
How do we know this year is also a year of the Lord’s favor? Hear the words of the angels at Jesus’ birth:
Luke 2:13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
Or as the Apostle Paul said to the Corinthians:
2 Corinthians 6:1-2 As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. 2 For he says,
“In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.”
I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.
Now…today…this year…is the year of the Lord’s favor! Enjoy every day living in the reality of God’s grace and forgiveness!
Apply: What difference does it make when you realize you are living each day as a recipient of the Lord’s favor?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for fulfilling the words of Isaiah and bringing us the reality of good news, freedom, spiritual sight, restoration and the Lord’s favor. May we live to your glory expressing thanks for these gifts of grace. AMEN.
Can you fix it?
Today’s devotion is based on Week 4 of “Resolve”: Listen to the right source! (WATCH HERE)
This past weekend my wife and sister-in-law were helping my mother-in-law put away the Christmas decorations. As my sister-in-law lifted a porcelain Christmas tree to put it in a box, the bottom part fell off and shattered. I got a picture with a message, “Can you build a new base?”
When something breaks that is precious in value or in sentiment, we want to be able to put it back together again. We naturally want to fix what is broken.
The base to this Christmas tree would need a lot of superglue and patience and it still wouldn’t be back to its original condition. We’ll see about a wooden base to at least make it stand up.
When Jesus stood in the synagogue of Nazareth and quoted Isaiah 61, he said,
Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me … to set the oppressed free,…”
What does this have to do with a broken Christmas tree base?
At the heart of the word “oppressed” is the idea of “broken” or “shattered.” It is a similar thought that King David as he despaired over his sin of adultery and murder:
Psalm 51:16-17 :You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. 17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
Sin shatters our heart into a million pieces. Like picking up the pieces of the broken Christmas tree base and realizing we can’t fix this on our own. We wish we could. It feels yucky to realize that what I broke I can’t fix.
Jesus, can you fix this?
This is what Jesus came to do. Literally this phrase says, “to send out those who have been broken.”
Things that are broken you throw away. Things that are fixed you continue to use.
Jesus in his grace fixed the problem of sin in our hearts by securing forgiveness through his perfect life, innocent death and glorious resurrection.
The result? We aren’t just “fixed” but we are sent out to function as ones who have been made whole. Think of the Apostle Paul and his rap sheet that Jesus fixed and sent him to bring the message of forgiveness to the world.
Jesus does the same for you and me. He fixes what we cannot and then sends out the broken to proclaim the glorious truth that Jesus is the healer of all who are broken by sin. As King David wrote in Psalm 34:
17 The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;
he delivers them from all their troubles.
18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
Apply: Does your spirit feel broken? Ask the Lord to fix it with forgiveness. Do you feel broken and not usable? Know the Lord fixes you with forgiveness and sends you out whole to serve him today!
Prayer: Be close to me and all the brokenhearted. Fix me with your forgiveness. Send me out to share the glorious Gospel with all those who are oppressed by sin. AMEN.
I once was blind…but now I see!
Today’s devotion is based on Week 4 of “Resolve”: Listen to the right source! (WATCH HERE)
When Jesus stood up in the synagogue of Nazareth, he said he fulfilled these words of the Prophet Isaiah:
Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me…
to proclaim … recovery of sight for the blind,…”
I wonder if there were any blind people in attendance that day in Nazareth? Or relatives who knew someone who was blind. Perhaps their first thought was, “Great! I will finally get to see!”
For a few people in Jesus’ ministry, this was true. Jesus actually restored physical sight so the individuals could once again see clearly.
Was this what Isaiah was talking about?
I personally kind of wish he was. After an eye injury in July of 2012, my sight hasn’t been the same. I would love my Savior to not just proclaim, but to actually restore the sight I had prior to the injury. But he hasn’t and this prophecy doesn’t say he will.
Rather, Jesus is talking about spiritual blindness and his desire that all who are spiritually blind would see him as the Messiah and the truth that he speaks. He explains this in answer to a question of his disciples:
Matthew 13:10 The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”
11 He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables:
“Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.
14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15 For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’
16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
Jesus came to bring spiritual understanding and clarity to the hearts of people. He removed the blindness of his disciples so they could see him clearly. He still is removing spiritual blindness today as he brings the truth of the Gospel to your hearts as well.
Never take physical or spiritual sight for granted. Both are wonderful gifts of God’s grace!
Apply: Can you remember a time when a spiritual truth became more clear to you? Take a moment to thank Jesus for fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy and giving “sight to the blind!”
Prayer:
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
Was blind, but now I see.
Amen.
Pardoned!
Today’s devotion is based on Week 4 of “Resolve”: Listen to the right source! (WATCH HERE)
We have heard a lot about presidential pardons in the last month. President Biden on his way out of office and President Trump as he began his time in office. We can have spirited debate on the power of the president to pardon or commute one’s sentence and if pardons for death row inmates or January 6 rioters is appropriate, but one thing I believe is certain for most who are on the receiving end of a presidential pardon: Gratitude.
Especially if receiving a full pardon (vs. just a commutation of sentence), the person is completely free from their sentence and restored to the rights they had prior to a conviction. While a presidential pardon may not expunge the record from a person’s file, it is as one lawyer put it, “the government forgiving your offense.”
As Jesus stood in the synagogue of Nazareth and read from the scroll of Isaiah, there was more than a few thousand people who needed a pardon. It was the whole world, including those sitting in the synagogue…and also you and me.
Jesus said,
Luke 4:18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
Proclaiming freedom for the prisoners is something I can do. I mean I can say the words, “You are free to go!” standing outside a federal prison. The words would fall on deaf ears and I would be looked at funny by any guards outside the prison. I would probably be asked to leave and not come back.
Why?
Because I have no authority to free the prisoners.
However if I was a lawyer and had a certified document signed by the President that said a certain prisoner was free, that authority would lead the guards to open the cell of the said prisoner and let him go.
Jesus not only proclaims freedom for the prisoners, but he has the authority to do it.
Not prisoners of the federal government, but prisoners to sin. Ones like you and me who have a rap sheet a mile long of offenses we have committed against the law of our holy and righteous God. A sentence that if fully executed would make life miserable for all of time and horrendous in hell for eternity.
But Jesus comes with a complete pardon for our sins. He hands his perfect life, innocent death and glorious resurrection to the heavenly Judge, the Lord as payment in full for all of our offenses. The judge sees the penalty that has been paid for our sins through Jesus and writes with Jesus’ blood on our conviction: Forgiven. Paid in full.
We are free! Free from the guilt and consequence of sin. We are restored to live a new and holy life to the glory of the One who pardoned us.
Enjoy the freedom Jesus won for you today!
Apply: Take a few minutes and honestly write out a “rap sheet” of all the things God the Father would convict you of. Then take a red pen and write: Forgiven by Jesus! I am free!
Prayer: Lord God, thank you for sending your Son not just to proclaim freedom, but to do all that was necessary to secure my eternal freedom with you! Help me each day to live to your glory as a free from sin child of God! AMEN.