One character trait God has is He is love. This daily devotional reviews what love is and isn’t, how God loves us, how His love affects us, and what He calls us to do.
Devotions in the Self-Discipline Review series
All year, we’ve been looking at self-discipline. We looked at it as the operational plan for self-control because it talked about improvement.
We are reviewing everything and hopefully putting all of the building blocks together. I am going through all of the devotions for the year and pulling out the nuggets.
I am formatting this as a glossary page. If I already have one, I will combine them later.
We are to imitate God’s character. The way we show that love to others is compassion. Compassion, charity, love — they have no sunsets. We will be doing all of those throughout eternity. Wisdom does produce compassion. As we learn more and more about the character of God, we feel His love and forgiveness in our lives (Wisdom Produces Compassion).
What Is Love and What Isn’t It?
Love is an intense feeling of deep affection. Unconditional love is intense feelings of deep affection without limits or circumstances.
- Christianity boils down to one word — love. We need to love God (The Perfection of the Church).
- God shows us He loves through His Scriptures. The laws and commandments show us the extent of a God’s love for us. They also show us God’s character (How Do We Profit from Scriptures?; What Is the Relationship between Righteousness and Holiness?).
- God’s character is love (I Jn. 4: 8). If anything, wouldn’t he smother us with His love? Well, hasn’t He in a way? God did send His Son to die a horrible death for us. If that isn’t oodles and gobs of love, what is? (Does God Tempt Us?).
- God wants to give us love and peace. Satan wants to fill us with hatred and chaos — even to the point of murder. There is no way we can serve both (Truth in Freedom).
- Does love sum it up or is it an overarching element? Either way, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, and forgiveness all filter up into love (What Else Is Expected as Disciples?).
- God chose us because He loves us. He didn’t choose us because of anything we did or didn’t do with regard to His laws and commandments (How Can God Heal This Land?).
- God is a God of love, not tyranny. He calls us for our good, not His. He is true to us and asks us to be true to Him (Spiritual Freedom).
- No one could love us as God loves us. He is our Creator (Being Content Because Our Hearts Are Right).
- God loves us so much that He wants us to be His children. There are requirements we must meet to become His children. But He wants to promise us much (The Promise of Righteousness).
- God’s love for us is deep. Even though we willfully disobeyed Him, He doesn’t just turn His back on us. He still loves us (Comprehending Christ’s Love).
- How comforting is it that the God Who comforts us is the one who allowed the trial? That shows His control and His love for us (One God and the Trinity).
- God wants us to cut out the old sin and replace it with His love and grace. He doesn’t want it to just be a ritual or symbolic. God wants the change to be real, personal, and genuine (How Are Disciples Humble?).
- There is hope for us because God is rich in mercy (Eph. 2: 4). Mercy comes out of God’s love, which is His character (I Jn. 4: 8) (How Are Disciples Merciful?).
- God’s love and mercy is intrinsically connected (What Is Jesus’ Mission (Part 2)).
- God bestows this love and mercy on us even when we are spiritually dead (What Is Jesus’ Mission (Part 2)).
- Yes, God loves us and cares for us on this earth. The life in this world will never be His priority. God’s priority will always be His kingdom and our spiritual condition (How Are Disciples Merciful?).
- God’s love for us promotes that peaceful feeling within us. We know we can come to Him anytime — for forgiveness, for protection, for assurance (What Are the Fruits of Righteousness?).
- God shows no favorites, so there is no injustice. He rewards those who love Him and live for Him (Spiritual Freedom).
- Faith is a product of love. We have to have faith to accept God’s love (Faith as a Virtue).
- What charity means is agape (love) flavored with benevolence (What Does Charity Mean?).
- Somewhere I read — and no, I can’t find it — that God allowed the original sin because, while man had free will, it showed the angels what love really is. There were a couple of reasons (Is Peace an Attitude?).
- We have to be careful that we make sure we are clear on what love isn’t. First off, we are not using the world’s definition of love. We have to be careful that we love as God loves and not as the world loves. God’s definition of love is different than the world’s definition (How Else Are We Made in His Image?; Kindness and Love as Virtues).
- God does correct us (Heb. 12: 6). He stands with us when we go through the trials and punishment — in fact, He surrounds us with His comfort. He sent the Spirit to live within us so that we would always have access to His comforting love (How Can We Find Comfort in Troubling Times?).
- Why does God discipline us? Why does any good parent discipline their child? Because God love us (How Should We Handle God’s Discipline?).
- He wants us to turn and follow His ways (How Should We Handle God’s Discipline?).
- At times, it does seem like there are two different sides of God. I think it is more, though, that God is the God of love — until we get on His last nerve. Then, God isn’t going to put up with it. God is not going to tolerate our thoughts of entitlement. He is going to shut down our abusing His blessings (Is Election Really Mercy?).
- Oh, yeah. It is easy to say God is love and a loving God wouldn’t allow hurtful things. We forget God is a wrathful God. Even though we can’t see God, we know when He is angry at our sinfulness. God’s anger is used to get us back on His track (How Should We Handle God’s Discipline?).
- We should never forget God is Sovereign Lord. And God is love (Is Election Really Mercy?).
How Does God Love Us?
Bottom line is that faith all the way to love comes from God (What Is Purity to a Disciple?).
God does love us before we put our faith and trust in Him — but He loves us so much more so afterwards. Think of God loving us. Individually. As a nation. As a world (How Did Moses Say Goodbye?).
God loves and cares for all of His disciples. He wants to be Lord of the Little Things as well as Lord of the Big Things. He wants us to totally submit to Him (Does God Help Those Wh0 Help Themselves?).
God loves us — even worldview people. He wants to bless His disciples. He wants worldview people to become His disciples so He can bless them (Who Is God?).
God’s love for non-believers will not negate the fact that they have to choose Him. In order to right what became wrong when Adam and Eve chose to disobey, we have to choose to obey. That is the only way we get through the gate (Jesus, the Good Shepherd).
We are not entitled to God’s love and forgiveness. There is nothing about us that could earn His favor. It is all about His grace (Salvation from the Cross).
God loves us unconditionally. No, that doesn’t mean He gives us pass when we don’t follow His laws and commandments (Who Is God?).
That love for us is unchangeable. It doesn’t matter what we do or don’t do, Jesus is going to love us. God’s love will not change based on what we do. Or what we don’t do (Comprehending Christ’s Purpose Through His Love; Aren’t We All Children of God?).
God wants to know us as our Father. Yes, there is restrictions — we have to truly submit our lives to Him. If we do, He has an infinite, unfailing love for us (Aren’t We All Children of God?).
No, we are not worthy of God’s love. We should think like John the Baptist: “He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie” (Jn. 1: 27 NIV). We become children of God only through His grace, not our worth (Paul’s Take on Children of God).
Jesus loves us. He will love us as we are. He will love us through our sins — as long as we fear Him (Who Is Jesus?).
God’s everlasting love means that — no matter what we do — He is going to love us. Yes, He will love us even if we don’t love Him (Comprehending Christ’s Love).
Jesus’ love for us is so intense that He willingly gave up His life — gave up Heaven — so His blood could be used as the sacrifice for us. For us, people (The Depth and Height of Jesus’ Love).
How Does God’s Love Affect Us?
It is only through God’s love are we made perfect (Out with the Old; In with the New).
When God continues to show us His love for us, as we continue to commune with Him, our boldness should grow (How Does Boldness Help Consistency?).
As children of God, we are in the palm of His hand. We are safely within the harbor of His love (What Happens to the Antichrist?).
No, God won’t bop us over the head — unless we need it. He will correct us through love (Learning to be a New Creation).
The pure heart produces love (What Is Purity to a Disciple?).
It is through that love that we gain our inheritance. Our inheritance is our reward for doing God’s Will: The Holy Spirit, eternal life and the kingdom (Walking the Ways of Righteousness through Wisdom).
Discontent comes when we don’t feel loved. Loneliness can really mess up our outlook. We don’t see what the purpose is for struggling if we have no one with which to share our lives (Being Content Because Our Hearts Are Right).
It is only through Jesus’ love that we have hope. If Jesus is not Lord of our lives, we do not have hope. If Jesus didn’t justify us, we wouldn’t have hope (Comprehending the Effects of Salvation).
What Does God’s Love Call Us to Do?
Why can’t everyone just love everyone else? Sin bashed that (What Else Is Expected as Disciples?).
The most important act of love we can give is to tell others about Jesus. If we put that as our focus, we are clean (What Does Charity Mean?).
We are called to obey God’s Will — actively obey. If it says love, we have to love. If it says honor the sabbath, we attend church. If it says don’t lie, we don’t lie (God Teaches Us Obedience).
We have to make God our priority. He alone deserves our love and reverence. We are to worship Him alone (Sins Against God).
We have to be submissive to God’s Will because we have faith and trust in Him. Love is based on His character (What Is Purity to a Disciple?).
We can trust Him even when we are afraid because of His unfailing love. We can trust God because He is Sovereign God — our God (The Scriptures Last Forever).
God does not command us to let people disobey Him — we are to try to help them see His love for them (How Are Disciples Supposed to Treat People?).
Disciples go from being indebted to His justice to being indebted to His love, power, and mercy (How Are We Debtors to God?).
The watchfulness has to be motivated by the love of the Lord. We have to want to be like Him (Stewards Who Are Ready?).
We are called to imitate God’s character. We are called to have compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness, and love (How Can God Heal This Land?).
We think it takes a special person to love our enemies. It is hard for us to put aside the hurt and anger sometimes. Suffering persecution definitely is not our cup of tea. We want nice smooth sailing. But God is calling us to do all of that. We can only do it through learning His wisdom (How Is Wisdom Righteous?).
Father God. You are love, and You ask us to be like You. You ask us to love You and others. We pray that You find us doing Your Will. Amen.
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