God's Love Lived Out - Your Nightly Prayer - June 11th

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Your Nightly Prayer

God’s Love Lived Out
by Kyle Norman

TONIGHT’S SCRIPTURE

"By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for each other.” - 1 John 3:16

SOMETHING TO PONDER

Do you remember the old children’s rhyme; Love is like a magic penny? I remember singing it often as I grew up. The chorus rang “Love is something if you give it away, give it away, give it away. Love is something if you give it away, you end up having more.”

Love is one of the main things we search for in our lives. It is an instinctual drive we all have. Who doesn’t want to be loved? Who doesn’t want to have people around them who look upon them in joyful delight? In fact, we want to be loved so much that we search for it in a variety of ways. Some search for love in romantic encounters with others; some in the warmth of many friends, some in the delight of children. Others search for love through faulty avenues such as bottles, pills, or adventures, or popularity and fame. But it all goes back to that one fundamental desire. We want to feel loved.

Too often, however, we end up focusing on how we feel or receive love. Love becomes rooted in what we receive from others, or from the world around us. It is the feeling that we have deep within, and one we will cherish beyond all. But if our focus on love is just about what we feel inside, then our love turns insular and closed off.

The bible talks a lot about God’s love and how we can feel God’s love in our lives. And truly, we can feel God’s love. We can feel the warmth of Jesus over us and know that we are the beloved children of God. The closer we get to Jesus, the closer we get to the full effusion of God’s love.

But here’s the tricky thing. Just like the proverbial magic penny, if we only focus on receiving, on our feeling of Jesus’ love, we tend to miss it. Because often, the feeling of God’s love is tied to the living out of God’s love. “We love because he first loved us”, declares 1 John 4:19. In the passage read above, John reminds us that the supreme expression of love is rooted in Jesus’ action for us. The love we receive from family, friends, even lovers, is a pale comparison to the true love that exists in the heart of God. It is only considering this tremendous sacrifice that God made for us in Jesus that we can experience the full realization of that which our hearts desire. Jesus, the incarnation of the God who is love, is the incarnation of God’s love expressed outwardly.

Once we receive that love, once we embrace it and accept it in our lives, the call for us is to offer it to others. We bear this divine love that has so transformed our lives with the same willingness and lavishness that God showed us. We are to love as Jesus’ loved, sacrificially, humbly, and selflessly.

If we struggle with the question “how can I feel God’s love”, perhaps the answer is found in how we express God’s love. Laying down our lives for others in service, in grace, or in humility, is to join mystically with the way of Christ. It is to open ourselves to the flow of the Spirit within us. When we live in this way, not only will we feel the perfect expression of divine love, but that love will move through us and into the lives of others.

YOUR NIGHTLY PRAYER

Dearest Jesus,
Thank you for the love that you show me through your sacrifice on the cross. Thank you for the love that exists for me, always, in all places. Your love for me is steadfast and true, as you are faithful to your love.
Lord, you know that there are times in my life when the pressures and weights of this world seem to quench my own reception of your love. May your love captivate me. But Lord, I pray this not so that I can rest easily in your love, but so that I can feel your call to lay my life before others in loving service. Help me to see the places where your love calls me to reach out to others, to serve as you served, to bless as you blessed. May your love move me past my zones of comfort and give me the boldness to incarnate your love in this world.
This I pray in the name of Jesus, my example, and my Lord.
Amen.

THREE THINGS TO MEDITATE UPON

1. Serving others often stretches us past our comfort zones. When have you felt God stretch you in loving service of another?

2. How might you express Jesus’ love to a friend, a family member, or a co-worker tomorrow? What is one tangible thing you can do?

3. Ultimately, the call of Jesus is not just to love our friends and neighbors, but to love our enemies, and to serve those who are against us. Where might Jesus be asking you to do this in your life?

The Reverend Dr. Kyle Norman is the Rector of St. Paul’s Cathedral, located in Kamloops BC, Canada. He holds a doctorate in Spiritual formation and is a sought-after writer, speaker, and retreat leader. His writing can be found at Christianity.com, crosswalk.com, ibelieve.com, Renovare Canada, and many others. He also maintains his own blog revkylenorman.ca. He has 20 years of pastoral experience, and his ministry focuses on helping people overcome times of spiritual discouragement.