DAILY MANNA DEVOTIONAL MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2018 SELFLESS SACRIFICIAL LOVE TEXT: 1 JOHN 3:11-24 Key Verse:

DAILY MANNA DEVOTIONAL

MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2018

SELFLESS SACRIFICIAL LOVE

TEXT: 1 JOHN 3:11-24

Key Verse: “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:16,18)

A man, sick and weighed down by the dreaded HIV scourge and on the throes of death looked up and prayed to God thus: “O Lord, if truly you love me, prove it now by raising me up from this bed of affliction.” Very urgently, Jesus whispered into his ears: “I have proved it already by dying on the cross for your sins. There is nothing more to prove.”

Christ’s vicarious death on the cross of Calvary has remained the highest price anyone could ever pay for the sake of others. “For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die” (Romans 5:7). While we, the entire humanity were yet in our sins, Christ died for us. He paid the supreme price to redeem lost humanity.

Consequently, redeemed souls are called to love without counting the cost. We are not to allow anything come between us and our love for God. We are to love Him with all our heart, soul and mind. Our love for our neighbours is no less tasking. We are to love them even as we love ourselves. Does our heart condemn us when we fail to show love? We have been endowed with many blessings to act as a conduit to the needy around us, be it in the church or in our neighbourhood.

We must endeavor to love in word and in deed. Our endowment are to be held in trust for the benefit of others sacrificially. We cannot truly claim to be representing Christ where our deeds of love are selective and self-serving. A true saint of God loves naturally and unreservedly.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: There is no true love without sacrifice.

COVER to COVER: NUMBERS 23-25.

PONDER:
1. True love is opposed to envy and murder, including murder using prayers or the tongue v11-12, 14-15.
2.True love is compassionate on the needy and does something concrete within his/her ability to meet the needs v17-18.
3. Answer to prayers is not only a function of faith but that of keeping His commandments and pleasing Him v22.
4 The proof of the grace of God in our lives and the love of Jesus in us is the keeping of His commandments and living a life that pleases Him v23,24.

HYMN: I love I love my Master (GHS 56)

1. I love, I love my Master,
I will not go out free,
For He is my Redeemer;
He paid the price for me.
I would not leave His service,
It is so sweet and blest;
And in the weariest moments
He gives the truest rest.

2.My Master shed His life-blood
My vassal life to win,
And save me from the bondage
Of tyrant self and sin.
He chose me for His service,
And gave me power to choose
That blessed, perfect freedom,
Which I shall never lose.

3. I would not halve my service,
His only it must be!
His only, who so loved me,
And gave Himself for me.
Rejoicing and adoring,
Henceforth my song shall be,
I love, I love my Master,
I will not go out free.

PRAYER POINTS:
1. Lord, take me deeper in the love of Jesus and of the brethren.
2. Lord, give me abundant grace not to fail in any of your commandments.
3. Holy Spirit, convict and deliver me from anything not pleasing to God in my life.
4. Lord, bring back true and practical love for one another to the fellowship.