Let Love Lead
… In Our Walk with God – Part II
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.
Please take note of the first sentence of today’s Key Verse: “So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us”.
Let me state that as a question: Have you come to know and believe the love that God has for you? If love is going to lead in your walk with God, you must deal with and answer this question.
Most of us have heard all our lives of how God loves us. Yet, when we are not all that we want to be for Him, it is easy for us to let guilt and shame lead in our thinking. To be brutally honest, far too many of us would have to say: “So I have come to know and believe that God loves me when I am good”.
Today, let’s deal with the tough subject of our failures and sinfulness. Let’s start by reading the Bible’s teaching on our life in Christ:
By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the One who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence. And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires. (2 Peter 1:3-4)
For those who think that we must sin every day, please read these two verses again.
God not only saved us from our past sins, but He has also given us all we need to live a godly life… a life without constantly returning to sin. Note that God has given us great and precious promises that help us share in God’s divine nature and escape corruption and sin caused by human desires.
It is true that all of us have fallen into sin after receiving Christ, but we did not have to! Jesus supplies the power and strength to keep us from sinning if we only avail ourselves of it.
Now that we have set up the idea that we don’t “have” to sin, what happens when we do sin, as Christians? The Bible deals with that as well:
My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the One who is truly righteous. (1 John 2:1)
Do not let your “human” thoughts lead in your thinking when you sin. Let God’s love for you lead. Know that Jesus is advocating for you so praise Him for it.
Father, thank You for loving me even when I fail You. Holy Spirit, remind me to praise Jesus for advocating for me when I sin. In Jesus’s Name I pray, amen.