Single-Minded Devotion

Encounter

As you begin, take a moment to pause. Assess your attitude, the position of your heart, and the way your body feels. What are you carrying today that weighs heavy on you? Hold those things before the Lord, acknowledging that He is present with you here and now.

Read John 15:9-17

“'I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. This is my command: Love each other.'”

Perhaps you’ve heard the saying God is love. How does this passage seem to support that idea? As you reread the passage, pay close attention to how that love of God through Jesus impacts us and what it is God invites us to do when we are impacted by that love?

Reflect

We know from Colossians 1, with special attention on verse 19, that Jesus is the fullness of God. That means Jesus is the embodiment of God, not just what we read about in the New Testament but also what we see from the Old Testament. 

As a side note, one way we can pray to better understand difficult passages in the Old Testament is to pray the embodiment of God through Jesus. Are there passages from Jesus’s time on earth that showcase how God chose to embody his holy character, which may be the source of difficulty in Old Testament passages?

The John 15 passage we've been looking at is Jesus’s embodiment of God’s character. Psalm 85 echoes praise as many of the Psalms do, yet in verse 10 of Psalm 85, we hear this, 

“Unfailing love and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed!”

The idea of these two sets of complementary words being used to describe God is synergistic. While unfailing love and truth, righteousness and peace all are powerful words by themselves, it is when coupled together as they are that these terms come to find a more compelling and complete definition. We will talk more about what these definitions are in Sunday and how the synergy of those terms has tremendous implications for us as followers of Jesus.

Spiritual Practice

What Jesus shared about God’s love being passed along to Jesus then through Jesus to us is not only extremely comforting, but it is also an invitation to continuing passing along that love to others.

In what ways do you take comfort in the love of God? To borrow language from the Bible, how do you take shelter under the shadow of God’s wing?

Perhaps you enjoy solitude and silence, or you find ways of receiving and expressing God’s love through music, art, creative storytelling? Maybe sitting across from someone over a cup of coffee and listening to their life is the way God fills you with His love? However God has wired you to receive His love, make time to do that thing at least once in the week ahead.

When we receive that love, we don't horde it for ourselves, but we are appointed to go and produce lasting fruit. How might God be inviting you to produce lasting fruit from the soil of His love for you?

Gather and Encourage

One of the ways we participate in the activity of God’s love is by joining into the community life of Christ’s Church. At Eden, we emphasize three simple ways each person can do this: 1) participate in worshiping God together with God’s Church, 2) be connected with a life group or triad, 3) serve alongside one of the many ministries God has equipped us to provide so others may experience the love of God through us.

As we participate in life together this week, take a moment to share how God’s love has impacted you recently.

You might share how God met a physical, emotional, spiritual, relational need in your life, how God revealed something new to you about His character, or how God is simply walking alongside you during this time in your life.