DAILY DEVOTIONAL FOR TODAY 23 NOVEMBER 2022: INSPIRATIONAL MESSAGE AND PRAYER
Read Daily Devotional For Today 23 November 2022
Topic: Love God; Love Others
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Scripture: 1John 4: 19-21
Our love of God is a response to God’s love for us. Just as we love our earthly parents as a response to their love for us, we love our heavenly Father. Hopefully, we love our siblings as well, even though we might have disagreements at time. In this passage, we are challenged to love our brothers and sisters in Christ in spite of the ways in which we might differ.
God loves all of his children and expects the same of us. Little children get this; we adults have a problem with it. In the play “South Pacific” there’s a song that talks about hating others and says that hatred needs to be taught.
It’s not something that comes naturally. Children are curious about people who don’t look or talk the same way that they do. In Haiti and again in Africa, children wanted to touch my skin and my hair because it was so different from what they say every day. But they weren’t afraid of me and they didn’t hate me.
They were open, friendly and, as they came to know me better, affectionate. They had never been taught to hate others. The wider the circle of life becomes, the more we interact with people of different races, creeds and ethnic backgrounds. Do we act with the curiosity of children or fear? John tells us in this letter that if we fear, then we don’t yet have perfect love because love cancels out fear.
Maybe the key is to get to know others better, and then love them even if we find we don’t like everything we find out. And we just might be surprised! After all, we don’t like everything about our family members and our friends.
We may love them even if we don’t like them. When we look at the faces of others, we are looking at the face of God. Let’s remember Jesus’ command, “Love one another.”
Prayer For Today
Loving God, we believe that you have made all of us in your image and likeness. May we look at all we meet as if we are looking at the face of the living God. Amen.