LEARNING ABOUT LOVE: A NEW DEVOTIONAL SERIES STARTING SOON!

Something to think about……

We live in a fast-paced world where it seems that we are always busy,
and have very little time to take a breath, rest, and think about where
we will spend eternity, wouldn’t you agree?

However, when the clamor and busyness settle down and we have some
real ‘alone time’, we can pause and reflect on how we feel about our
relationship with the Lord, can’t we?

And when we do, if we are honest with ourselves, most of us really want
to grow closer to God, right? The question is,
    “What can help us to grow closer to the Lord?”

When we look at who God is,
we can see that His defining characteristic is LOVE.
    Whoever does not love does not
    know God, because God is love.
    (1 John 4:8)

Not only is God described as LOVE, but we are given many examples
throughout His Word that LOVE needs to be a part of our lives. With
that in mind, it just makes sense that in order for us to grow closer to
the Lord, we need to start developing our own LOVE characteristic,
correct?

When reading the scriptures, God leaves no doubt about His love for
everyone, and if we want to grow closer to Him, we should be identified
as someone who expresses LOVE at all times, and in all situations.

Does that mean we will need to adjust our focus, patience, and overall
attitudes toward others, and God? Probably, but in order to understand
God’s type of LOVE, and to develop His characteristic in our own lives,
we need to get a comprehensive view of LOVE in His Word.

God inspired me several months ago to create a series of devotionals
on LOVE, and I am convinced that He not only pointed me to the
scriptures to include, but He also provided the content for these
devotionals. My responsibility (assignment) is to share them.

As I have been assembling ‘His’ devotionals, it has had a profound impact
on my life and my attention to love for God, and others. It has also given
me an appreciation for how God begins a ‘sanctification’ process in us when
we surrender our lives to Him.

‘Sanctification’ is a ‘big word’ that is not used very often in our daily
conversations. Simple stated, it is a process initiated by God to remove
unrighteousness from those who belong to Him, and to ‘backfill’ the
voids left by their removal, with righteousness.

Why would He do that? It would have to be because He wants those who
belong to Him to become more like Him, right? So, since God is LOVE,
then in order for us to look more like Him, we need to be identified as
people of LOVE. For some, it can mean some minor adjustments, but to
others (probably most of us), it can mean major, consequential changes
to our lives, can’t it?

For instance, we may be showing a lack of love when we are rude
to other people. We may not consider it as rudeness, but whenever
we ignore others (and especially when they are speaking directly to
us, or if there is a generation gap between us), we are showing a lack
of God’s love in us, aren’t we?

To answer that question, we should look at the One who is closest to God,
which is His Son, Jesus. Was Jesus rude to others? Did He ignore those
talking to Him and consider them unimportant? No, Jesus had a love for
others and He showed it by how He interacted with others (and especially
those who were ignored by others).

Look at how He took the time to listen to, and interact with those who were
handicapped, older, or had bad reputations. Only a person with the love of
God living within them has the capability to show that kind of love. It is not
something that necessarily comes natural, but it is more of a supernatural
attitude that God infuses and develops in our lives through His Holy Spirit.

The question we need to ask ourselves is,
    “Am I embracing God’s effort to sanctify me, or am I rejecting it
      due to my own selfish attitude of wanting to please myself, and
      an unwillingness to allow God to be at work in my life?”

With the wisdom and guidance of the Lord, I am almost finished with
assembling His devotionals for the series on LOVE. He may choose to
add more later, but at the moment there are 64 devotionals which I will
start distributing soon on social media and some large email distribution
lists.

It may sound like it will require you to spend a lot of time reading them,
but most of them can be read in about 5-10 minutes (some longer and
some shorter), and they will be made available with gaps in between
each one to give us time to meditate on what we have read.

Based on how they have impacted my own life as I assembled them,
I am confident that if you commit to spending a very small amount
of time (probably no more than 30 minutes a week, depending on how
often God inspires me to distribute them), your life will be enriched,
and you will grow closer to the Lord as your read each one of His
devotionals.

Look for them on Facebook and LinkedIn. Also, if you want to be
notified via email when a new one has been published, you can enter
your preferred email address on my Blog.

Until I start distributing them, please be praying and tell God of your
desire to grow closer to Him. Ask Him to speak directly to you through
‘His’ devotionals so you will know exactly what He wants you to know
personally about including love in your own life. It will most likely be
different or each person, because our heavenly Father is a God of
dispensation (which means He knows what each individual needs).

As a side note, I do not solicit donations (they are all available for free),
and I do not, and will never, gather any information to share with others,
or to flood your inbox with unsolicited emails (the system will only send
you a notification of new devotionals that have been added).

God has called and equipped me to serve Him in this way, and that’s my
sole intent for distributing over 2000 devotionals (and adding more each
week) since 2013. They are being viewed by hundreds of thousands each
year in all 50 states and over 80 foreign countries, so I know that God is
changing lives with ‘His’ devotionals.

My Blog is: utvolwoody.com