12th. August. 2021. Daily Devotion.
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 ‘Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?’
37 Jesus replied: ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.” 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’ Matthew 22:34-40
How does one love God in the way that Jesus commands? We cannot see God, and everything we know of Him comes to us through His revelation to other people down through the ages. If God is only a concept in our minds, then loving him will be very difficult. The way to keep the first commandment is to keep the second, because we already know how to love another person. Seeing the image of God in someone else should prompt such love. Here is a pertinent comment on this:
Of all the many commands that we in Christ’s church have violated, our failure to love one another and to love our neighbours as ourselves is perhaps the most egregious. By failing to love one another, we also fail to love God. The solution seems fairly simple, in theory. We must give up all hatred and emotional contentiousness, and hand ourselves over to the love that Christ taught us to have. S Peterson
Lord, help me to grow every day in the love for you and my fellow man. Amen.
For a Sense of Wonder at God’s Creation
Dear Lord, grant me the grace of wonder. Surprise me, amaze me, awe me in every crevice of your universe. Delight me to see how your Christ plays in ten thousand places, in limbs and eyes not His, to be the Father through the features of men’s faces. Each day enrapture me with your marvellous things without number. I do not ask to see the reason for it all; I ask only to share the wonder of it. Amen.
Bless those who give,
who go the extra mile
in their care for others,
and whose love expands
to fill the present need,
not dwelling on the cost.
Bless their generosity,
and those receiving it.
By their good example
may others’ needs be met.
We give thanks for all those people
whose daily lives are about giving;
be it medical or physical assistance,
teaching, training and encouraging,
loving, caring, supporting, praying;
all the many ways that one life can
be blessed and enriched by another.
For all these people we give thanks. Amen.
Benediction
Now, oh Lord, I pray that you may lift up the light of your countenance upon me and give me peace; in my going out and in my coming in; in my sitting down and my rising up; in my work and in my play; in my joy and in my sorrow, in my laughter and in my tears; until that day comes which is without dawn and without dark. Amen.
