14 day plan

Pay attention!

Day 12 of 14

NIV

1 John 3:1

1See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Reflection: Bitterness and blessing

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Matthew 5:4

If life has not yet dealt you some bitter blows, you have yet to know some ocean-depths of comfort. Grief is the gift of blessing in disguise.

Loneliness, emptiness, brokenness and torture have a way of stripping us naked.

Exposed. Defenceless. Disenfranchised. Disconsolate. Desperate.

Does God now have your attention?

That’s why grief is the gift of blessing in disguise.

The Bible is a book about blessing but of grief there is more than its fair share. It’s a love story that begins with a divorce. “Everything from Genesis three to the end of Revelation tells the story of a betrayed lover wooing us back into His arms so we can enjoy the love of family forever.”*

See, it’s not that God has abandoned us in the shadowy valleys and torture chambers…but that we, there, abandon ourselves to him. That, we desperate-do, because God’s most defining characteristic is “com [with] passion”.

And, speaking of blessings in disguise, take note when those gifts of fullness and joy arrive, that they are return addressed ‘your lover’. Confounding love!

Prayer:  Lord, I love that you bend down to listen when I can hardly speak your name. When terror, trouble and grief overwhelm me I whisper: Come, Com-passion! Save me! You are kind, good, merciful and protecting of those who have childlike faith. Soul, be at rest, for the Lord is good. (Psalm 116:1-7, author’s paraphrase)

 

*Larry Crabb, 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God That Invites You into His Story

 

 

 

 

The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.

Days

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1 John 3:1-24

1See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

4Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

7Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. 9No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. 10This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.

More on Love and Hatred

11For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

16This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

19This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.