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MEDITATION:

Written by Mollie Schairer, a contemporary Christian author. This is an excerpt from her devotion “The Power to Love.” Jesus spoke the words, “love each other,” to his disciples just hours before his death on the cross. As he speaks them to me today, I am filled with eagerness to keep his command. Then discouragement washes over me. Jesus’ words convict me of my failures: impatience with my husband, anger toward my beautiful child, irritation with fellow believers, avoidance of others who need my love. How can I possibly show true love, Christ-like love, in every circumstance, to everyone whom God has placed in my life? Yet Jesus did not give this command without also making it possible for me—and for you—to fulfill it. Jesus spoke these words during his last Passover meal with his disciples, the night before his crucifixion. After having loved perfectly everyone he encountered throughout his life, he was about to show the world the extent of his love. He would be taking on himself all our failures to love and paying for those sins on the cross. Now, through faith in Jesus, God sees in us not the failures, but rather Jesus’ track record of perfect love. What a tremendous gift! Yet God gives us even more. We can love as Christ commanded, because we have the gift of God himself inside us, powerfully and wonderfully at work in our hearts. Jesus assured the disciples that he would send the Holy Spirit—the Counselor and Encourager. The Holy Spirit transformed the disciples from loveless deserters of Christ into bold lovers of God, distinguished from the rest of the world by their sacrificial love for one another and for those who hated them. Jesus’ promise is fulfilled for us today. As we study the Word, the Holy Spirit comes to us and transforms us into bold lovers of Christ and of everyone God places in our lives. Jesus also promised that he and the Father “will come to [the believer] and make our home with him.” God has taken up permanent residence inside us! God’s power is ours, every day, in every situation we face. It never runs out. It never fails. When we feel we have no strength and cannot manufacture a loving thought, let alone act accordingly, let us remember who resides in us. The almighty Creator of the universe even now is creating in us the desire to love others as Christ loved us. The Provider of everything necessary for the world’s welfare even now is producing through us the acts of love that serve the needs of those around us. Yes, we can love as Christ loved us. We can fulfill Jesus’ final command before his death on the cross. The power for such constant, complete, and sacrificial love resides in us, because our God resides in us. Jesus assured his disciples of this truth in so many beautiful ways. With boldness, with joy, with the power of our almighty, triune God working in us, let us love each other!

PRAYER:

The author of this prayer to the Holy Spirit is  unknown.

Come Holy Spirit dance in our souls.

Come as the fire of love and burn in our hearts.

Come, O Breath of God blow through our lives.

Come, O come, Dove of peace and beat your strong wings

above all that we do in Jesus’ name. Amen.