Sunday, March 12, 2017

Devotion 3.13.17

Love - Psalm 33

We use the word love in life so much that it almost has become bland.  We express love for many different items:  food, music, art, cities, regions (the Rocky Mountains or the Grand Canyon for example), certain performers, entertainers, sports figures or teams, pets, family, and God/Christ.  I've been heard to say, "I love baseball," on the heels of which I say, "I love going to the game and enjoying all aspects of the game."

In music, I would suspect a search of titles and lyrics with the word "love" in it would yield millions of results.  Love references our relationships, and it depends on the genre of music as to its use.  Love, it seems, is all encompassing.  In an introductory class in theology, we learned there are four types of "love," ranging from devotion to others, to friendship or brotherly love (phileo), to emotional and sensual love (eros), and Godly love (agape').

David writes of God's love when he says, "steadfast love," the LORD of the covenant and his love for his people.  "Our soul waits for the LORD; he is our help and our shield.  For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.  Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us, even as we hope in you." (Psalm 33:20 -22) God's steadfast love, his faithfulness.  John references God's love frequently, captured mainly in John 3:16:  "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."  Faithful, steadfast love.

So, when we express love, especially to those we are responsible for - our family, our loved ones, our friends, maybe even people we don't really know, what kind of love is most Christ-like?  Pray that we love God with all of our hearts, minds, and souls, and that we love our neighbors as ourselves.  Pray that we show Christ's love to those we love in our homes, our neighbors, and those strangers we meet we may not know.  As David notes, "For the word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness." (Psalm 3:4) Let that be true of us as well as God's people.

Hope Men's Ministry

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