Monday Morning Devotion #296

Focal Passage for 2011:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35

Weekly Passage:

“(Love) does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil.”
1 Corinthians 13:5

As we continue our journey into 1 Corinthians 13:1-8, we will focus our time this week on the second portion of verse 5. Our focus this past year has been, and continues to be, learning to love others as Christ loves us. As I have shared before, my definition of love differs from God’s definition of love. God is teaching me that HE is the authority on all things. In light of that truth, if my definition is different than His, my definition is wrong!! “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29).

This week, we will focus our attention on the second portion of our focal passage “(Love) does not seek it own…” My Friend, do you realize that we all “seek” something? Every day, we are surrounded by choices and each of the decisions that we make regarding those choices reveals what we are truly seeking. We see this very thing demonstrated as far back as Adam and Eve. God created a perfect world and HE created Adam and Eve and placed them in the midst of His creation. No good thing was withheld from them. God blessed them and HE had an intimate, pure, unblemished relationship with them. God even established boundaries for them because HE knew what was best for them.

God’s boundaries were for Adam and Eve’s protection; however, Eve did not view it from that perspective. When Satan tempted Eve, he used the very same “line” he uses with us today, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5). Now certainly Satan is not tempting us to literally eat from “The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” but he does tempt us to seek our own pleasures and to reject God’s commands on our lives. His temptation may manifest itself differently in different situations but the bottom line is that Satan is tempting us to trade a pure, intimate relationship with the Lord God for self-seeking pleasures that lead to death.

As children of God, we are commanded to love as Christ loves us, “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). Christ’s love was demonstrated on the cross when HE did NOT “seek His own” but rather HE sacrificed His very life so that we may live! We are not called to die on a cross for the sins of others but we are called to die to self and to live a life that points others to the cross where they too can find forgiveness, salvation, and healing. My Friend, when we seek to fulfill our flesh we are hurting others. We may not understand how our selfishness affects others but sin always brings forth destruction! We are commanded to love one another as Christ loves us because through our obedience Christ is magnified and others are blessed.

Over the past year and a half, our Ladies’ Sunday school class and our Deaf Ladies’ Bible study has been focusing on learning to “Seek God.” This was the theme for our Ladies’ Retreat this past year as well. I am so blessed to be surrounded by women who desire to seek God and to know Him more. Their heart’s passion inspires me, motivates me, and challenges me to also seek the Lord God with all my heart. I am learning that I have to make a choice…I cannot seek to serve myself AND seek God at the same time, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). God’s command is clear, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5), “Seek the LORD while HE may be found, Call upon Him while HE is near (Isaiah55:6), “And you shall seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your hearts” (Jeremiah 29:13).

My Friend, who/what are you seeking today? There are only two directions we can walk…With the Lord or away from the Lord. God is calling us to call upon Him and to surrender our lives to Him. A surrendered life is a life that recognizes that he/she has been bought with a price and that the life he/she is now living is not his/her own but belongs to the One who saved him/her from the consequences of sin. If we are seeking self, we are walking in rebellion! May each of us fall before the Lord God and confess the sin of “seeking our own” and ask Him to create within us a heart that desires to love as Christ loves and to live a life that truly reflects the glory of God.