Our Motivation of Love

The Bookmobile came to our house today!  We are so lucky as homeschoolers in a very small town to have the Bookmobile come right to our house each month.  I always pick about 30 books for my mother-in-law, who can read a book a day.  I then usually pick a bunch of easy readers and books that will go with up coming holidays or themes that are being studied but today I was drawn to the adult non-fiction section and came across the book: Experiencing God Day by Day - The Devotional by Henry and Richard Blackaby.  I thought that it might be a book I would like to read over the next month.  I put it in the crate of books to be checked out.

This evening I sat down with the book and turned to the devotional designated for January 22nd and I was just blown away.  It is just amazing to me that I have been focusing on love...specifically God's love and the title for today's devotion is "Our Motivation of Love"  Shut up!!!  Are you kidding me...no God would not kid me.  So with that said here is that devotional:

Our Motivation of Love

"O righteous Father!  The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me.  And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." John 17:25-26

You do not "organize" the kingdom of God, you "agonize" the kingdom of God.  You cannot be close to God without being affected by His love.  The heavenly Father loved His Son with an eternal love.  Everything in the heart and life of the Father was released to His Son.  As the Father expressed His love for a broken and sinful world, this passion was manifested through the life of His Son.  The Father initiated His plan to save mankind, and out of a heart of devotion, the Son accepted the assignment that took Him to the cross.

As Jesus walked among people, the Father's love filled His Son.  Jesus recognized that no ordinary love could motivate Him to go to the cross.  No human love could keep Him perfectly obedient to His Father throughout His life.  Only His Father's love was powerful enough to compel Him to commit His life to the saving purpose of His Father.

Jesus prayed that God would place this same love in His disciples.  He knew that no other motivation would be sufficient for the assignments God had for them.  God's answer was to place His Son in them.  It is impossible for a Christian to be filled with this measure of love and not to be on mission with God.

You will be incapable of ministering to everyone God sends you unless you have His love.  You cannot forgive others or go the extra mile with others or sacrifice for others unless you have first been filled with the boundless love of God.  Seek to know the Father and His immeasurable love, then allow His Son to love others through you!


Oh Lord, take me on this journey...you are my motivation of love!