Good morning, Lord Jesus. I speak out Your name and listen for Your voice. ...
"Then God said, 'Let Us make humankind in Our image, according to Our likeness'.... So God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them" (Genesis 1:26-27).
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit--You are One God in three Persons, eternally One in the perfect bond of Your perfect nature of holy love (1 John 4:8). You've created us in Your image, according to Your likeness--to love and to be loved, to love You and love one another, to be loved by You and be loved by one another (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:37-40). This is how we are to live life in the image of God, as You forgive us and cleanse us from every way we fail to love You and love one another.
"God's love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is perfected through us" (1 John 4:9-12).
In the journey through these forty days of fasting and prayer in preparation for the week we remember together Your journey to the cross and Your resurrection from the tomb, it's good to remember to keep the main thing the main thing. And the main thing is that You are the God Who is love, expressing Your love to us and through us. Everything else we ever do or say, we ever teach or learn, we ever think or believe, must be grounded in this foundational truth. "So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them" (1 John 4:16).
Lord Jesus, You perfectly revealed the love of the Father through the nature of the Holy Spirit living in You. And now You live in me and in the hearts of all who trust and believe in You by grace, through faith (Colossians 1:27). We are in the daily process of the journey to the cross and the resurrection, being conformed into the image of the Son of God, into the nature of the love of God (Romans 8:29). This journey of death and resurrection is the journey of following You into the growing nature of Your love.
As You said to Your first disciples and all Your disciples to follow: "If any want to be My followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for My sake will save it" (Luke 9:23-24). This is our life of love for the sake of God--for "the only thing that counts is faith working through love" (Galatians 5:6). To the degree that we love--allowing You to express Your love through us--we reveal we are created, redeemed, and restored into the image of our God. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Be encouraged today! In the Love of Jesus, Tommy Hays
God bless you in your journey through this season toward the Holy Week we especially remember the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. May He make us more like Him each day, all in the power of His grace -- Your friend, Tommy
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