Revelation 1:5 – And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood.

THEME OF THE DAY: BECAUSE HE LOVES ME. Today’s theme is a title of a book penned by Elyse M. Fitzpatrick. The subtitle is How Christ Transforms Our Daily Life. Here is an important excerpt from her wonderful book – “It’s essential for us to think about God’s love today because it is only His love that can grant us the joy that will strengthen our hearts, the courage that will embolden our fight against sin, and the assurance that will enable to open up our lives to Him so that He might deal powerfully with our unbelief and idolatry. If we’re not completely convinced that His love is ours right now – fully and unalterably ours – we’ll always hide in the shadows, focusing on our performance, fearing His wrath. Prayer will be hard because we won’t want to approach Him or be transparent before Him. Witnessing will be a chore, for who would want to talk to others about a God who is demanding, angry, or cold? If we don’t consciously live in the light of His love, the gospel will be secondary, virtually meaningless, and Jesus Christ will fade into insignificance. Our faith will become all about us, our performance, and how we think we’re doing, and our transformation will be hindered.” The love of God in Christ Jesus. It is what defines the Christian life. As we think on this truth about God’s love, I want us to explore three specific areas in the Christian life that the love of God is to be the shaping force.

First, the love of God in Christ Jesus shapes our worldview. When a Christian knows the love of Christ, the world is seen in a different light. The Christian under the control of Christ’s love views the world from heaven, not the earth. The things of the world lose their attraction. The pleasures of life take on a secondary place when compared with the pleasures of the Lord. The distribution of our resources – time, money, and ourselves – are from an eternal perspective not earthly. As the Christian experiences more and more the love of Christ, a weaning from the world occurs. We actually become disgusted with life in this world and long to be with Christ.

Next, the love of God in Christ Jesus transforms our prayer lives. What do lovers want more than anything? Time together. Time to share. Time to communicate. There is no greater motivation to be a man or woman of consistent and intimate prayer than to know Christ’s love. One reason we pray so little, don’t make church prayer meetings a priority, and rarely carve out lengthy times of being with the Lord in prayer is we don’t know Him very well. It will be impossible to not have a vibrant and relational prayer life with the Lord and other believers if we are growing in the grace and knowledge of Him. The lack of such a prayer life is not caused by busyness and demands on our time. It is caused by neglect to know the Lord. If we are really seeing the Lord in His Word, prayer will become an insatiable desire and discipline which will not be ignored, neglected, or sacrificed on the altars of busyness and worldliness. In fact, prayer will become such a privilege that we cannot wait to get alone with the Lord.

A third area which the love of God in Christ Jesus impacts us is our faithfulness. His love experienced empowers faithfulness to His house and His service. I have witnessed Christians who get excited about church and begin serving in a ministry, but soon lose steam and even step aside from their service. Why? Failure to understand the call of the Lord is not activity, but faithfulness. Activity is driven by us and what we choose to do. Faithfulness is driven and sustained by love for the Lord. If we easily start missing church for anything other than emergencies; if we volunteer for a ministry but soon give it up; and if we find anything in the Christian life dull and burdensome, we are not experiencing the empowering and sustaining love of God. The only thing which keeps us going or being faithful in all things of the Lord is His love. Should we be foreign to this experience, it will show in our lack of faithfulness to the things of the Lord.

Oh, how He loves us. May God show us more and more this great love of His as we seek it more and more. It really is the Christian life and transforms our lives.

PRAYER: “Father, help me be motivated in my Christian life simply by love; a seeking of Your love.”

QUOTE: “To know the love of Christ defines the purpose and pursuit of everything we do in the Christian life”