Image from heartlight.org
Hear the devotional: https://bit.ly/44pmJtr
View here: https://bit.ly/3PgWLEo
9 Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. 10 Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. 11 Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, 12 cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. 13 Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality. 14 Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. 15 Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. 16 Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody. 17 Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. 18 If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. 19 Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it." 20 Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. 21 Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good. (Romans 12;9-21 The Message Bible)
I keep coming back again and again to a quote from the late Rev. Dr. Charles Allen, former senior pastor of First United Methodist Church of Houston, Texas, who wrote, "Old age has a way of peeling away all of the superficial and getting back to the core of who a person truly is." (Or something along those lines!). But in making a pastoral visit to a nursing home, there was one dear, sweet lady, whose core had revealed a true woman of love. This lady never said a negative word or comment during any of the visits I made to her. Sadly, her contemporaries in other facilities were revealed to being some interesting, for lack of a nicer word, cores. If we stop right now to reflect on our core, which we need to do, what would the world see when we are in the golden years of life? Would we be seen a truly people of love, or would we be shocking our pastors with our remarks and views on life? Now is the ideal time to check!
This modern version puts it quite clearly about our core needing to be one of love. "Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it." If you don't like what or who's at your core, you can pray and ask to be made new. King David did when he wrote in the psalm, "Create in me a new heart." He knew the power of God to make new from the old and to place in empty spots of our hearts, fresh love. So many sweet social media posts of children of different heritages and backgrounds getting the same clothing or haircuts because they see themselves as twins from different mothers, tells me that these children, still in their innocent, do not see difference and they certainly don't see the need to hate. What changes them? I think you know.
And Paul warns us against this for he writes, "Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good." Parents, yours is the responsibility to model and teach love to your little ones, praying unceasingly, for their hearts to be filled with love. "Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle ("Deny yourself and take up your cross"). In other words, live out your faith in love without ever giving up and staying the course for good. When hard times come, it's time to pray harder; soak up flammable love from Christ and set ourselves on fire with love in the midst of a cold world that does not yet know that. Seek to be active servants of the Master, bearing all things with cheerful hope, never giving up or having such discouragement that we seek to quit. Be available to all, laughing with those who laugh and crying with those who cry. Seek to understand enough to get along with all. Do not be stuck up. Love all people, even the ones others choose not to see. Don't seek to be somebody you're not; Don't hit back; seek the beauty in all people. Give up on revenge; leave it to God. Bless your enemies and if you ever see them hungry, feed them; if they're thirsty, give them water to drink. Your unexpected generosity will surprise them. Never let evil get the best of you; beat out evil by being and doing good.
In other words, dear friends, be known as those whose lives shines forth love.
PRAYER: God of love and joy, fill me til I want no more; bless me to love others; in Christ Jesus I pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! YOUR CALL TO ACTION: Be a person of love.
Receive my blessings of love and peace,
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.
