Life and Love, Day 23 True Life and True Love. Read 1 John 5:16-21 Many people will claim to be experiencing life and love, and yet not have a relationship with God. However, we must understand that true life and true love is only found through God. Anything else that people are experiencing is nothing more than a cheap substitute for the real thing. Only through God can we experience true life. Only through God can we experience true love. When we look at our lives, are we a reflection of those truths to people around us? Are we leading others to the truth? We must first know the truth…

Life and Love, Day 21 God is Life. Read 1 John 5:6-12. The last several days have shown us how God is love. Everything that we understand about love has come from God. And, we cannot understand love apart from God. However, God is also life. The life that we have, and the life that he has promised, is only found in God. When we think about eternal life or the promised life, we must understand that God himself is life. Knowing him is what provides us that life. Are we seeking after God knowing that he is the life? Are we trying to satisfy our desires through anything else…

Life and Love, Day 20 How do we love God? Read 1 John 5:1-5. Over the past several days, we’ve read a lot about what love is and how God loves. Today, we see how we are to love God. You see, just saying that we love God or telling God that we love him is not enough. The way in which we show God that we love him is by obeying his commands. If we say that we love God, but we do not do what he has asked us to do, then we really don’t mean it. God showed us that he loved us through his actions, and…

Life and Love, Day 19 We are not able to love on our own. Read 1 John 4:19-21. In order to truly understand love, we must understand that we really don’t understand anything at all about love. The only reason we are able to love is because God first loved us. God is love and in him there is no fear, as we learned about from the last couple of days. But we also have to admit that without him, we would not know what love is at all. The only reason we are capable of loving others is because God first loved us. God demonstrated love toward us. And…

Life and Love, Day 18 Love and fear can’t coexist. Read 1 John 4:11-18. As we learn more about love, we understand that God is love. We learned that yesterday. When we understand God is love, then we must understand that fear and love cannot coexist together. The perfect love of God casts out fear. God is not afraid of anything. He knows exactly what’s going to happen. There is no fear in who he is or what he does. If we are filled with the love of God then we will not have fear. God is in control, and we can trust him. We don’t need to have any…

Life and Love, Day 17 God is love. Read 1 John 4:7-10. When it comes to love, we cannot have a conversation about it without also talking about God. God is the very definition of love. There is no real love apart from God. When we talk about love whether it is feeling love, or expressing love, if that feeling or expression is not completely aligned to God’s nature and who he is, then it cannot be real love. If people do not understand the character and nature of who God is, then they do not understand what love is. God is love in its truest form. It’s important to…

Life and Love, Day 16 God is greater. Read 1 John 4:1-6. As we read these 6 verses, we see a lot written about the spirit of the world. Interestingly, today in the United States we celebrate the holiday of Halloween. Often, this holiday becomes all about spirits and disguises and trick-or-treating and candy. While many people enjoy this holiday and have a lot of fun with it, it’s personally never been one of my favorite holidays. I think part of that comes from this idea about spirits. As believers in Christ, we know and understand that just as Christ and God and the angels are in the heavenly realm,…

Life and Love, Day 15 Facts, not feelings. Read 1 John 3:19-24. Yesterday, we learned that love cannot be about intentions, but is about actions. Today, we see the truth that love cannot be about feelings but is about facts. In this verse, we understand that sometimes what we tell ourselves isn’t true. Our heart can deceive us, and our feelings can lie to us. However, God is greater than our heart and God knows everything, so God is able to help us discern the truth of the situation even when our feelings don’t align. God loves us even when we can’t love ourselves. God has high standards and expectations…

Life and Love, Day 14 Love must be lived out. Read 1 John 3:16-18. John goes through several descriptions of what it actually means to love.You see, we can talk about love and we can explain about love, but if we aren’t actually demonstrating love then, what’s the point? John knew that there were people going through difficult times, and he wanted the church to realize part of being like Christ and demonstrating love was taking care of those people. Are we living out the love of Christ and demonstrating that by sharing with others. Love cannot just be something you say. Love must be something we do. As we…

Life and Love, Day 13 Expectations. Read 1 John 3:11-15. Managing expectations can be one of the most challenging areas in life. This can include everything from managing the expectations of other people toward us, to also managing our own expectations. We need to be realistic about what we see and what we are going to experience in life. If we are a follower of Christ, we need to understand that success looks different for us than what it does for the rest of the world. Success is about following Christ and being obedient to him. Success is not about money or position. If we are not staying focused on…