Joni and Friends Daily Devotional
I'd Die for You
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." 1 John 3:16
Real love is an action - a selfless, sacrificial giving. The greatest act of love anyone can perform is to give him or herself for others.
Sometimes it's easier to say, "I'd die for you" than it is to say, "I'll live for you. Let me put your desires first. Let me think of your interests before my own." I think we would all agree that living sacrificially is a real death to self. It's a killing of your selfishness, your own desires. To die for others, to live for others, it's a gift of love that can only come from God. Why only from Him? Because it takes super-human strength to live - I mean really live - for others.
The sweetest lives are those to duty wed,
Whose deeds, both great and small,
Are close-knit strands of unbroken thread
Where love ennobles all.
The world may sound no trumpets, ring no bells;
The book of life the shining record tells.
The love shall chant its own beatitudes
After its own life working. A child's kiss
Set on thy sighing lips shall make thee glad;
A sick man helped by thee shall make thee strong;
Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense
Of service which thou renderest.
-- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
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I wish I could make it more complicated. But it's ever so simple. Receiving His love and then giving His love, dying for others and living for others--that pretty much sums up the Christian walk, our purpose for being. How's your love quotient? Are you giving more than you're receiving? Are you ready to live for someone else? In what ways do you need to die to self?
Teach me, Lord, through the example of Your life, to graciously give of myself that others might live. Keep me from a sense of martyrdom and enable me to retain my joy.
Blessings,
Joni and Friends
www.joniandfriends.org
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