Let Love Lead
… In Our Walk with God – Part I

Scripture Reading: 1 John 4:11-18

Key Verse: 1 John 4:16
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

Most of us know the importance that the Bible puts on love. One of the more famous verses in the Bible starts with “For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16).

It is also well known that the Bible challenges us to love one another. Many wedding ceremonies describe love as found in 1 Corinthian 13. If anyone does a Google search of Bible verses on “love”, they will find out how important love is and how central it is to the theology of God.

The title of this month’s devotional is “Let Love Lead”. I am praying that all readers of this devotional come to understand that we must make all decisions in our daily lives with an attitude of love.

From our walk with God, to our relationships with all people, our money, every internal attitude, and every emotion, love must lead us. When we make this decision, it seems at times that we come out on the “short end of the stick”. But the eternal truth is that we always “win” in God’s sight when we let love lead!

This week I want to focus on what it means to let love lead in our walk with God. Love motivates everything God says and does.

In our human understanding, we might say, at times, that “tough love” leads God’s actions and teachings. This is just like when tough love leads parents’ actions and teachings for their children.

As we experience the good and the bad in life, Christ-followers must discipline their minds to conclude that there is a loving purpose behind all God does or allows to happen to His children. This is part of what I mean when I say: “let love lead in our walk with God”.

First Thessalonians 5:16 says:

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

If we do not let love lead our thinking, this verse does not make sense. Humanly, how can we truly give thanks for the negative circumstances that we sometimes find ourselves in? It is only possible when we grasp God’s loving purpose in all things.

It takes mental discipline to not accuse God when it seems like He does not care for us, or He is not acting when and how we want Him to.

When I see parents or others neglecting or abusing kids, it is typical for me to ask “God, why do you allow that?”. I have learned to change my question to “God, is there anything I can do about that?”.

Sin is to blame for the terrible things that go on in and around us. Challenge yourself to let love lead in all your thinking.

Father, I know You are a God of love! Help me to always let love lead in the way I judge circumstances and people. In Jesus’s Name I pray, amen.