Aug 17 2024

Today's Bible Verse

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

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In this verse from Mark, Jesus responds to someone who asks what the most important commandment is. He says that loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength is the most important act of obedience a Christian can ever do. At the same time, this is sometimes the hardest thing for a Christian to do. Let's think about how Jesus' words affect the way we live today.

The reason loving God is so important is that it reflects our understanding of the Gospel. When we realize that the Lord decided to make a way for us to have a relationship with Him even though it cost Him His own son, the only natural response is to love Him. How could we not? The Lord made a huge sacrifice so we could know Him; when we experience His love for us, we naturally want to love Him back.

Loving the Lord changes the way we live. Indeed, Jesus says that the second most important commandment is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Mark 12:31). When we love the Lord, we love the things He loves and hate the things He hates. He loves other people just as He loved us, so it follows that we should also embrace His love for other people.

He loved us, so it follows that we should also embrace His love for other people.

Yet it can be difficult to love the Lord, as well as other people. Our life circumstances are sometimes very challenging, making us question whether or not the Lord is good to us, and people sometimes hurt us deeply. In those cases, we should go back to the Gospel.

Think about the number of times you have wounded the Lord by sinning against Him, and recall that he still never rejected you. He took your actions seriously—so seriously that He sent His son to die and atone for them—but on the other side of them was grace. If the Lord never did another good thing for us, we have plenty of reason to rejoice in Him for all eternity.

Today, think about how you can express love to the Lord. It might be through spending time in the Bible, praying, worshipping in church, or showing love to another person. Think about what you can do to touch another person's life with the same love of the Lord that changed yours.

Today's Prayer

Dear Lord, thank you for loving me before I ever knew you. Thank you for being so good to me and for caring about me more than I will ever understand. Help me to love other people well, honoring them with your goodness and love always. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Aug 16 2024

Yesterday's Bible Verse

As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. :

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Yesterday's Bible study

In this verse from Ecclesiastes, the author reflects on how we don't know everything about the Lord. We do not know the way of the spirit, or all the works of the Lord, who makes everything. There is so much that we do not understand!

This thought can seem daunting at first; however, it is a sweet relief that we don't have to understand everything about how the Lord works.

When we talk about the Lord, it's important that we recognize our human limitations. The Lord, by definition, is far greater than we will ever comprehend, and while He knows us fully, we will never know Him fully. It is always possible for us to know the Lord better than we do, but even when we are in Heaven with Him, we will not fully comprehend His glory, majesty, or power—those things are simply beyond our ability to understand.

Yet we were not designed to know everything about the Lord; He has made us exactly as He wished.

This frees us from feeling like we have to understand everything the Lord does. Not understanding something about the Lord is not an indication of spiritual immaturity. Rather, it is a reality that many people, including those in the Bible, had to accept. We are not expected to have an answer to every question. We do not need to feel burdened or frustrated by what we cannot know about the Lord; we will not be held accountable for it.

However, we know enough about the Lord to walk in confidence in our relationship with Him. We know that He is all-loving, gracious, and merciful. Nothing in His character will ever contradict that truth, even the things that we don't know. We have more than enough information about the Lord's character through the Bible and our prayer life to know that the Lord to whom we have given our lives can be trusted.

Indeed, we are responsible only to obey and trust Him. Even though we cannot know everything about the Lord, we know that when He asks us to do something, we should do it. We know that we have no reason to be fearful and that we will spend eternity with Him forever. We know enough to enjoy our relationship with Him, walking in joy and trusting Him even in the unknowing.

Yesterday's Prayer

Dear Lord, thank you for being who you are. You are far beyond my comprehension or understanding. Thank you for being a mighty, powerful, all—consuming savior. Thank you for being my Lord. Please help me to not get caught up in what I don't understand, but instead lean into your promises and the truth that you are good, faithful, and just. In Jesus' name, amen.
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