DEVOTIONAL SERIES ON LOVE – Overview

DEVOTIONAL SERIES ON LOVE – OVERVIEW

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 settles down and we have
finally have some real ‘alone time’, we can pause and reflect on how
we feel about our own 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,
    “How can I 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, if we expect to grow closer to
the Lord, then we need to start developing the characteristic of LOVE
in our own life, 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, to all people. 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 has inspired me 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 own 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 (i.e. when He saves us).

‘Sanctification’ is a ‘big word’ that is not used very often in our daily
conversations. Simply 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, in
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), we are showing a lack of God’s love in us, aren’t we?

We should also consider our attention and body language whenever we
are having a conversation with someone either younger or older than us.
Each generation can contribute to conversations, but it won’t happen if we
fail to show genuine interest and respect for each other.

To answer the question (How can I grow closer to God?), 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? Did He consider others to be
unimportant? No, Jesus had a love for others, and He showed it by how He
interacted with them (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 naturally, 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 have assembled His
His devotionals for the series on LOVE. He may choose to add more
later, but at the moment there are 64 devotionals. Several of them
have already been distributed, and I will continue to distribute one
per week 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 are available with gaps of several days 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), 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.

Consider praying and telling 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 a different experience for each
person. Why? 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 (all of the devotionals are all
available for free), and I do not, and will never gather any information
to share with others, or flood your inbox with unsolicited emails (the
system will only send you a notification of new devotionals that have
been added – and only if you have requested notification from my Blog).

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

NOTE:
IF you have missed the ones already distributed, you can find
them on my Blog by entering the following in the Search field:
    DEVOTIONAL SERIES ON LOVE

My Blog is located at:
    utvolwoody.com