Where Love Flows
Sunday’s Verses:
From 1 Peter 1:22-23 ESV
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.”
Saint Peter, in our church’s Epistle reading this weekend, doesn’t look inside us to see how much we love others. He points us to what God has done. You were born again. Not by striving. But by the living and enduring Word of God.
That’s important. The kind of love Peter describes doesn’t spring up from us naturally. On our own, love is tepid at best and selfish at its worst. It tires quickly. It grows cold easily. The new birth redirects the source. God’s Word makes what it demands. The same Word that declared your sins forgiven in Christ works that forgiveness into your heart.
Pay attention to the sequence. God goes first. He gives you life through the Gospel. As a result flows the fruit: sincere love for your neighbor. It’s not something you have to muster up in order to remain favorable in His sight. It’s the proof that you have already been given life.
So when your capacity to love others falters, you don’t strive to produce some spiritual love-clicktrack within yourself. You go back to the Word. You hear that Christ loved you in a complete, pure, unconditional way. His love absorbs your weakness and empowers you again.
Love flows out from there. Not flawlessly, but genuinely. Not to earn God’s favor, but because you have already been given everything in Christ.
✝️ A Prayer for Today:
Heavenly Father, thank You that through Christ Your Word has given me life. When I fail to love others or fall into selfish affection, draw me back to Your promises. Restore me through the Gospel and let Christ’s love mold how I love others. Amen.
Apostles’ Creed:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Luther’s Morning Prayer:
I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.
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