Daily Devotional

The more I study God’s Word, the more I learn about God’s love.  It is one of those truths in the Scriptures that we will never fully understand.  Our inability to totally understand the depth of God’s Love for us is described in the hymn entitled simply “The Love of God,” written by Fredrick M. Lehman in 1917.

The love of God is greater far
  Than tongue or pen can ever tell.
It goes beyond the highest star
  And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
  God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled
  And pardoned from his sin.

 Could we with ink the ocean fill,
  And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
  And every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above
  Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

O love of God, how rich and pure!
  How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
    The saints’ and angels’ song.
  Though stretched from sky to sky.

I will never stop being amazed by the Lord’s thoughts of love toward each of us. The more I read about, understand, and experience God’s love, the deeper it grows.  It is a love that values us with the very life of His Son that He gave on our behalf. God’s love unconditionally accepts us because of the sacrifice of Christ. It is a love from which we can never be separated, making it possible for us to be a part of God’s family. As we meditate on God’s great love, the Psalmist tells us He puts a song in our hearts during the dark times of our life. This enables us to focus on God’s thoughts toward us resulting in prayers of gratitude and worship.

The Scriptures encourage us to take every thought captive. There are moments in life that our thoughts spin out of control.  The enemy wants to confuse us with lies and half-truths.  Nights can seem so long.  Our minds find it difficult to shut down and we tend to fixate on certain thoughts that may or may not be true.  Often in these dark times, it is difficult to see God’s love and care.  The reality is that God’s love for us has never changed and never will.  As we meditate on God’s love, we need to challenge any thoughts that would minimize His love for us.  We should not entertain any thoughts that are contrary to the truth presented in Scripture.  We can ask ourselves these questions…  

1. What anxious thoughts typically swirl in your mind? If you have trouble sleeping, what thoughts fixate in your mind?
   
   
2. How can you bring God into those thoughts?  What Scriptures apply to those anxious thoughts?
   
   
3. What steps can you take to quiet your mind, to focus on spiritual truth, and meditate on God’s love for you?   “… we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”  (2 Corinthians 10:5)
   
   
4. What aspects of God’s love would help you deal with thoughts of rejection, conditional love or failure?

Prayer:  “Lord Jesus, I give you all of my anxious, frantic thoughts. I want You to be the center of my life and my thoughts. I need You to quiet my mind. Help me to focus on You and free my mind to dwell on truth.” Amen

New International Version (NIV)
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