Christmas At The Movies - Week 2 - Day 3
OPENING PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, I am rich with blessings. Thank you for sending your son to die on the cross for me. Thank you for the many ways that you show your love for me. Help me to always share that love with others. Help me to be generous. Amen.
”Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood. Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love Among Us he sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. This Is Love not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
REFLECT:
We are quickly approaching the time of year when our families will all be gathering for Christmas celebrations to focus on the birth of our savior. There are many in the world who celebrate Christmas as a national holiday, but they don't necessarily believe that Christ Jesus is the son of God or that he was God and man. With what we have seen this past year and by circumstances being what they are, it would be easy to be frightened by the wickedness we see all around us and to be overwhelmed by the problems we face. Evil is obviously much stronger than we are, but John assures us that God is even stronger in (v4). He will conquer all evil. God wants us to know that he is still in control. "God is love". God's love expresses itself to us forever. To every believer, we have the promise of eternal life.
APPLY:
"All who confess that Jesus is the son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them." (1 Jn. 4:15,16 NLT). How well do you display your love for God and the choices you make and the actions you take? Will you ask God/Jesus to come and live in your heart today?
CLOSING PRAYER:
Dear Lord, thank you for the gift of your Son and the Holy Spirit that gives us the power to love and live in our heart to make us more and more like Jesus. Amen.