loveofGod | Kristi's Morning Devotional

August 5, 2023August 5, 2023

The Goodness of God

Yesterday we were talking about personalizing what we read in God’s word. Making our daily lives a friendship with the Father let us enjoy His presence and His person.

For years preachers delivered messages that did a great disservice to our loving Father. They delivered messages of hell fire and brimstone. They said everything the people were doing brought God’s judgment on them and the land they lived in.

God was blamed for failed crops, children dying of the pox, drought, cattle wasting away and bad-tempered people.

Where’s the grace? Where’s the loving Father? Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying God doesn’t judge sin, He does but He also provides salvation through grace to the sinner. I honestly believe we need to do more teaching about God’s love and less about His judgement.

“You surely don’t think much of God’s wonderful goodness or of his patience and willingness to put up with you. Don’t you know that the reason God is good to you is because he wants you to turn to him?” Romans 2:4 CEV

Paul worked hard to counter the misrepresentation of God in his time too. His was a message of repentance and grace.

“In Christ we come before God with freedom and without fear. We can do this because of our faith in Christ…14 So I bow in prayer before the Father. 15 Every family in heaven and on earth gets its true name from him. 16 I ask the Father with his great glory to give you the power to be strong in your spirits. He will give you that strength through his Spirit. 17 I pray that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. I pray that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. 18 And I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide, how long, how high, and how deep that love is. 19 Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with everything God has for you.

20 With God’s power working in us, he can do much, much more than anything we can ask or think of. 21 To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:12-21 ERV

This is one of those group of verses that I read every day. It reminds me how wonderful and glorious God is. It reassures me each time I read it of the greatness of God’s love and how He wants His power to work in us. That is how we honor Him.

May your day be filled with the goodness of God.

December 28, 2021December 28, 2021

Above All This…

This morning these are the first thoughts that came to mind as I sat to write in my journal…

“I ask the Father with his great glory to give you the power to be strong in your spirits. He will give you that strength through his Spirit. ¹⁷I pray that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. I pray that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. ¹⁸And I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide, how long, how high, and how deep that love is. ¹⁹Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with everything God has for you.

²⁰With God’s power working in us, he can do much, much more than anything we can ask or think of. ²¹To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:16-21 ERV

Many are beginning to make their New Year’s Resolution list. I don’t have one, but I found myself praying these words written by the Apostle Paul for all of you.

To know – really know – the full depth of God’s love for us is a life-long process. The height, the length, the depth, the width of the all-encompassing, unconditional love of God is incomprehensible to the human mind; it can only be understood because the Spirit of God gives us insight.

God’s power is free to work within us when we are filled with His love – His love drives out resentment, jealousy, bitterness, hatred, prejudice, evil. His love working through us does so much more than anything we could ever ask for or think of.

God, the Father, desires to see His fullness operational in our lives and that happens when we know and experience the depth of His love. Jesus was the human expression of God’s love, and He is our example of how we should live a life of love.

I’ve been mindful of the verses above for almost 40 years now and I will admit that I still don’t comprehend all there is to know about the Father’s love but I do know so much more than I used to. It’s a continual process of growing and developing in our relationship with Him that brings us to a greater experience of His love.

As I began to write this morning, I remembered the lyrics from an old song. It was recorded first in the 1950’s and has been re-recorded many times since, “I Wish You Love”. Here are a few of the lyrics…

“I wish you bluebirds in the spring
To give your heart a song to sing
And then a kiss, but more than this
I wish you love…

I wish you shelter from the storm
A cozy fire to keep you warm
But most of all when snowflakes fall
I wish you love”

As you start each day of the new year, I encourage you to tell the Father how much you love Him and ask Him to show you, in a personal way, His love.

More than health, much more than wealth, I pray you know His love!

November 19, 2021November 19, 2021

Big Hugs

I’m a person who loves to give hugs! Plain and simple – I feel hearts connect with a hug.

My hugs aren’t those tiny squeezes with a pat on the back, those remind me of burping a baby. Hugs should be genuine, huggers should be bold and not timid. Yesterday was a good day for hugging. Family came, neighbors stopped over, dear friends visited and even some new acquaintances came.

I think the hardest thing for me during our last months of social distancing was not being able to hug. People were so cautious and even timid about touching. I understand…but for someone who loves to hug it was a very isolating time.

I want to tell you about a man who experienced a life changing touch. He was a man with leprosy. He wasn’t allowed to connect with society. In fact, he and others like him had to live outside the city and announce to all who came close “unclean, unclean”. It was his warning to stay away, social distance, as it were.

Can you imagine the loneliness and despair?

But one day something happened. A man came outside the city and a large crowd followed Him. He was teaching up on a hillside; His words were dynamic, His presence was inviting. One of the things this man said that day was this:

“Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. ⁸Everyone who asks will receive. Everyone who searches will find. And the door will be opened for everyone who knocks.” Matthew 7:7-8 CEV

The leper continued to listen and then this happened:

“As Jesus came down the mountain, he was followed by large crowds. ²Suddenly a man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus. He said, “Lord, you have the power to make me well, if only you wanted to.”

³Jesus put his hand on the man and said, “I want to! Now you are well.” At once the man’s leprosy disappeared.” Matthew 8:1-3 CEV

This leper encountered a healing touch – no longer unclean, no longer an outcast!

You and I didn’t have leprosy but we were just as unclean as this man. Our disease was worse than COVID, our disease was sin. It separated us from a relationship with God, the Father. “Unclean, unclean”! But the Father wasn’t willing to accept our condition and made a plan for our redemption.

“Christ died for us at a time when we were helpless and sinful. ⁷No one is really willing to die for an honest person, though someone might be willing to die for a truly good person. ⁸But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful.

⁹But there is more! Now that God has accepted us because Christ sacrificed his life’s blood, we will also be kept safe from God’s anger. ¹⁰Even when we were God’s enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his Son’s life.” Romans 5:6-10 CEV

” Now that we are at peace with God” no longer do we have to shout “Unclean”, we are redeemed!

Let me tell you, when I reflect on the depth of God’s love for me I feel Him giving me the biggest and best hug ever. When He hugs me our hearts connect and I know that I am loved!