Wednesday, August 23: What great love the Father has lavished on us

 

How do we know our church is achieving its mission or even aiming at the right target? Jesus was clear: The greatest command is to love God, and the second is like it: to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Join us at this year's annual joint service called The Gathering, where we'll learn the "secret" to hitting the one target Jesus calls us to aim for: being world-class lovers in a world filled with hate.

Read 1 John 3:1-2

See 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. Dear 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.

Reflect

Have you ever been a parent or a grandparent and lavished love on your child, or seen another new parent do so?

Respond

John invites us to visualize God—our Father—lavishing his love on us, calling us his children. Picture a human parent doing this with their little child, and then multiply that image by infinity. Know that this is how much your heavenly Father lavishes his love on you, his child. Are you willing to receive such love?