OPEN HEAVENS DAILY DEVOTIONAL...
DATE : TUESDAY 7th JULY 2015

THEME : LOVE MUST BE RECIPROCATED

Memorise:
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. John 15:10

Read: John 15:9-10
9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

Message
God loves us so much the He gave us Himself as a gift. Giving Jesus Christ to die for us was the same as giving Himself to us (1st Timothy 3:16). But He did not stop there, He went further, pointing out to us in Romans 8:32 that:
“He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things.”

However, love should be a two-way exchange, and not one-sided. If you love someone and your love is not being reciprocated, after a while, something will happen to that love. That love may grow cold or even die. The same applies to the relationship between God and us. If you check through the scriptures, you will learn that whenever God does something for someone, He expects them to do something in return. It is one thing to be loved and another thing to abide in that love. While you were in your sins, God demonstrated His love for you by sending Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, to die for you. When you respond to this divine initiative by repenting of your sins and accepting Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, you will be washed by His blood and forgiven. After this, God increases His love towards you, and when you reciprocate, that love increases.

Love begets greater love. If you want to sustain or increase the love that God has for you, reciprocate His love. In today’s reading, Jesus tells us that when He came to earth as a man, He was loved by the Father; but to sustain that love, He had to keep the Father’s commandments. What the Father expected of Jesus is what He expects of us today. There is no way you will continue in God’s love when you deliberately break His commandments or refuses to obey Him. If He has loved you, He expects you to love Him too. He expects your obedience. He also expects you to love other brethren. How have you reciprocated the love of the Lord? Even though afflictions, persecutions, angles, Satan, what we see and what we can’t see cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:35-39), disobedience, manifested by violation of His word, can deal that love a terrible blow

Action Point:
List some things you have never done that you can start doing to reciprocate the love of God. Do them from today!

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR : 1 CHRONICLES 23:25 and LUKE 18:35-19:10
AUTHOR : Pst E. A ADEBOYE