DAILY DEVOTIONAL: FRIDAY, MAY 8, 2020
SCRIPTURE READING
Scripture: John 15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
Jesus tells us to love one another. He calls this His “commandment.” Doesn’t it seem strange for someone to command us to love someone else? We’re not used to having Daddy or Mommy order us to love each other, are we?
A long time ago, my two younger brothers and I were on a camping trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area up in northern Minnesota. Dad was with us. He had never been on a canoeing trip with us before. We were all very happy to be together.
One day we were in two canoes going across a big lake. The weather wasn’t good. We were paddling into a strong headwind. We were looking far away at the shore trying to find the place on our map marked as a landing for the next portage. (A portage is where you carry the canoe on your head across land instead of paddling it across water.)
No matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t see the landing. My brother thought it was to the left and I thought it was to the right. Pretty soon, we were angry and saying mean things to each other.
Dad didn’t like it and he asked us, “Would you be acting this way if Jesus were here with us?”
My brother and I were very ashamed. We stopped fighting. Soon we had landed at the right place.
My Dad loved us and wanted us to love each other. My Dad wanted us to love each other the way he himself loved us.
Jesus wants us to love each other the way He loves us.
This is His command.
Scripture: John 15:12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
QUESTIONS
- What is a portage?
- Have you ever seen brothers fighting?
- What is Jesus’ command?
SONG OF THE WEEK
The Love of God
The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen could ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell.
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
The erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
When years of time shall pass away,
And earthly thrones and kingdoms fall,
When men, who here refuse to pray,
On rocks and hills and mountains call,
God’s love so sure, shall still endure,
All measureless and strong;
Redeeming grace to Adam’s race–
The saints’ and angels’ song.
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song.
Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.
O love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure
The saints’ and angels’ song. (x2)
PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Heavenly Father, help me to love my brothers and sisters even as I am loved by Jesus; sacrificially, patiently, indelibly, totally, without hypocrisy, and to the end. Amen.
SCRIPTURE MEMORY THIS WEEK
John 15:7-8 (KJV)
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
