Love Reservoir

EACH ME, O’ Lord, how to be content with just belonging to you! I woke up this morning with this prayer because I was missing loving on someone. I had been loving on a man for ten years, and whether he deserved it or not he got that love because I was devoted to my husband. Now as a single Christian woman, with three kids and a youth praise dance ministry, I have a lot of love to give but every woman reading this right now knows what I’m not talking about that kind of love!

God gave us the innate desire to love and want to be loved. So I’ve been feeling this tug to love again. But then my thoughts went to the scripture about the woman at the well. Even after six husbands, she was still thirsty. Jesus assured her if she drunk from the living water she will not be thirsty again!

Jesus is telling us today, “Let me fill your love reservoir with my eternal living water and you will thirst no more!” And the great part about it is, Jesus will meet you where you’re at. Jesus was at the well before the woman got there. Even in your place of emptiness, loneliness, and solitude, Jesus is already there waiting to fill you up, comfort you and walk with you. He wants to be the lover of your soul!

We have to continue to thirst after him daily and long for HIS love or we will be thirsty for anything! —Shawanda Harden

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14 NKJV

Love One Another

What would happen if for one 24-hour period everybody got along? I mean what if for one 24-hour period we actually lived by John 15:12-13?

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

I’m not speaking to the world, those that have not accepted Jesus Christ, I am addressing the blood bought born again believers! 

Jesus didn’t say if you feel like getting along, or if it is convenient, nor did He say love only those that agree with your doctrine, or attend your denomination. No, He said, this is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

So what would it look like if the Christ Followers loved each other in spite of our differences? 

Here’s what I imagine it to look like: 

The world we’ve preached to for years would be speechless!
There would be breaches in the wall!
There would be no gaps in the hedges!
We would be a united front!

As the days grow darker, we need to be a unified body more than ever! We need to realize that we are one, or at least should be behaving one!

As the world grows darker and we face more and more tribulation, let’s lay aside our petty differences and squabbles over doctrine – stand shoulder to shoulder, representing the body of Christ! —Jounda LaMance

Dear Jesus, You gave the commandment and walked out the perfect example for us! Forgive us Lord for wounding our own and not loving those around us! Help us Lord to walk in Your Word, and to set aside our differences. We want to be a united front in this dark world, and to be a testimony of Your amazing LOVE! In Jesus Name, AMEN!

Love Never Fails

First Corinthians 13:8 has as its opening sentence the phrase, "Love never fails." I was struck by the power of these simple three words; it hit me like a load of bricks.

Love never fails. On several fronts love never fails to amaze me. In the course of my life, I thought I was in love several times. Each time it was exhilarating. That was until the truth came out; all those other feelings were not love after all. 

My idea of love was shaped by my disappointments. I have been disappointed many times, but despite the disappointments; I looked for that perfect love. That perfect love written in children's fairy tales. Soon I realized that there is no perfect love out there, except God's.

God loves me, even when I disappoint. It amazes me sometimes how patient God really is. Often times I have done things that are down right hateful to God and still He was there. He was there, waiting for me to profess my love and ask for forgiveness.

The romantic in me wants to believe that those other loves will never fail. I know that it is not true, despite my best efforts. 

I never found that perfect love, until I let God's love fill my heart. Now I know that His love never fails.

Dear Lord,
Help us to remember that all things are possible through your love for us. We put our hearts in your hands and have faith that your love will never fail. Help us to share your love with each person that we touch in our daily lives. Help us to live the life that you have shown us through your son. Amen.

Closing Thought
God's love has really helped me to have a better relationship with my wife and my children. I know that in my daily interactions with them I am sharing His love; a love that never fails. —Kevin Hartford

Long, Hard Look

Are you a bird watcher? 

Bird enthusiasts wish for more than a sneak peek. When catching a mere glimpse of a bird on the wing, they wish it had not flown away so soon. Given ample time, they could have gazed at the bird.

Jesus wants me to look, to take a long hard look at birds. I don’t need to record their color, markings, or to know their habitats or migration habits. The Lord wants me to look for all the ways that he meets their every need. 

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature (Matthew 6:25-27 NKJV)?” 

Jesus did not sugar coat his words. When a sermon convicts a church member, they frequently accuse their pastor of stepping on their toes. Jesus is not stepping on mine; he is applying gentle pressure to my mind. Why? Worrying reveals a lack of faith. —PamFord Davis

Christ Jesus, forgive me for wavering in faith. I have felt both conviction and comfort through your bird creatures. In your name, I pray. Amen.