Advent 2021 - Week 4
Jesus, Our Love
What does it look like to truly love and be loved? How does God love? What is healthy human love? Where does Agape love comes from? For this last week of Advent we will be reflecting on the biblical meaning of love—agape. This is just one of the words the Bible uses for love.
Agape doesn’t refer primarily to the romantic feelings that can come and go, or generalized love and care for a person. Agape is a powerful word that help us to understand the depth, the consistency, and the sacrificial nature of love. Agape is a choice that you make to seek the well-being of people other than yourself. Besides the fact that Agape involves emotion and care, it’s a deliberate choice to act in the best interest of another person.
It’s not easy to express agape. Certainly is way easier to do with someone you are deeply connected to; someone we’d give anything to see flourish and grow. Sometimes Agape really challenges us. For instance, when we need to do something for someone that will be incredible painful to ourself, or require some kind of sacrifice on our end. Nevertheless, it is exactly in these moments, when we practice this kind of love, that we’ll experience Life in abundance.
Agape love is extended even to those who reject us. It’s the kind of love that puts another person’s good above our own. That’s the kind of love that God always has for us, even before the beginning of the world. It’s the same love that led Jesus to the cross for the sake of all humanity.
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is Love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love–not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
—1 John 4:9-10
God himself suffered and died because He loves us. He wants us to experience the kind of love that lives and exists within Himself. He wants to invite us into the perfect love between Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
I. Pause to be still
As I enter prayer now, I pause to be still; to breathe slowly; to re-center my scattered senses upon the presence of God.
How deep the Father's love for us?
How vast beyond all measure?
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure
How great the pain of searing loss?
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory
Behold the man upon a cross
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished
I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom
Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom
PRAYER OF APPROACH
Father God, open my eyes, fill my heart with compassion, and teach me how to act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with You. (Micah 6:8) Help me to understand your love in a fresh way today. Lord, in this full season, please help me to be still. I am opening my ears now to hear You, quietly preparing my heart for the wonder of Your coming at Christmas.
Father I surrender my will, my fears, my disappointments, my human reasoning and understanding to You. I cry out to You for your mercy. Help me to embrace Your amazing Love for me. Help me to love others in the way You Love, no matter how rejected or accepted I might be.
May my love for others not be conditioned by their actions, but only by You and Your Love. May my life in this season, that celebrates the arrival of Your Love, be an expression of that same arrival to others.
II. Rejoice and Reflect
WATCH
Discuss
What surprises you about this definition of love?
READ
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who declare 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 John 4: 7-16
God doesn’t limits Himself to express Love, as an external action. Jesus is the embodiment of God’s love. He proved it most clearly when He gave his life on behalf of humanity.
When we learn to trust Jesus’ love for us we are transformed to live a life of Love with Him, according to His will.
Discuss
According to the passage, what is the source of love? How did God show His love to us, and why did he do it? Why should we love others? Take time to rediscover and marvel at the answers the passage provides to these questions.
How it has God’s love for you been looking like recently? Where have you seen or noticed God’s love for you recently?
“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.” Have you learned to trust God loves you? If so, describe your experience of receiving his love. If not, what do you think would change in your life if you fully trusted that God loves you? What would be the one next baby step you need to give in order to trust God’s love for you?
No one has seen God, but God loves in the one who loves (v.12). In this way, God’s life can be seen through people who choose to speak and act in sacrificial love. How have you seen God’s life through people’s love for one another? How can you love and show God’s life to someone else today?
READ
You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. But you are to be perfect [growing into spiritual maturity both in mind and character, actively integrating godly values into your daily life], even as your Father in heaven is perfect.
—Matthew 5:43-48
Through all the Gospels Jesus teaches his followers to seek other people’s well-being without expecting anything in return. Not only that, but He also teach them to love their enemies. By doing that they would develop God’s character within.
DISCUSS
How do Jesus’s words encourage and challenge you today?
Note how God himself is kind to people who commit evil and are wicked. What does this say about God’s character?
Is there anyone in your life that you struggle to love? Take time to imagine how God sees that person. What do you imagine he desires most for them? How do you think Jesus would personally address them, and how can you join him today?
How can I be an expression of God’s love to those who don’t love me as Jesus does? How can I be an expression of God’s love to those who challenge me to love them sacrificially, by paying the price implied in the situation ?
PRAY
Turn your reflections into a prayer. Express your gratitude to God for his merciful love and be honest about the ways you have withheld love from others. Pray for the people who have mistreated you and ask for God’s help to love like He does. Ask Him for boldness and courage to be willing to take all the risks implied to love others as He does.
III. Ask God for help
Loving God, I ask You to help me be kind to everyone, to be a ‘minister of reconciliation’ someone who brings others together, and not a part. God of Love and Peace I ask you to bring people together and to use me as your servant to help you to bring people together. Help us (and everyone in your family) to forgive one another and be kind even when we disagree.
Father I reaffirm before You and my brothers and sisters the surrender of my heart, of my disappointments, hurt, anger, self-righteousness; I reaffirm the surrender my own human reasoning and wisdom, and my will to You and Your Truth. Like the tax collector prayed, I now plead to You in humility and repentance: ‘God, be merciful and gracious to me, the [especially wicked] sinner [that I am]!’ (Luke 18:13). Thank you for your righteousness that makes me righteous; thank you for your forgiveness and sacrifice that makes me right with you.
I surrender my will, my fears, my disappointments, my human reasoning and understanding to You. I cry out to You for your mercy and help to embrace Your amazing Love for me. Help me to love others in the way You Love, no matter how rejected or accepted I might be.
May my love for others not be conditioned by their actions, but only by You and Your Love. May my life in this season, that celebrates the arrival of Your Love in the flesh on earth, be an expression of that same arrival to the life of others.
A CALL TO HOLINESS
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
—Isaiah 9:2
Jesus in this season, awaiting the light of Christmas, I confess any specific ways in which I have walked in darkness today.
Pause and present your requests to Him.
Father of grace, thank you that when I confess my sins, You are faithful and just, forgiving and purifying me from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9) I receive your forgiveness now.
IV. Yield to His Will in your life
YIELDING PRAYER
Father God, I yield myself to You. I ask You to deliver me from every fear—the big ones and the small ones too—and displace them with your perfect Love.
Father, I see more of myself in Joseph’s and even Zechariah’s fear than in Mary’s faith. And so, I am grateful for Your grace, and the ‘second chances’ You offer, repeatedly, when I fail. I yield myself to You, and I ask You to put a new song in my heart today.
YIELDING PROMISE
And now, as I prepare to take this time of prayer into the coming day, the Lord who loves me says:
Though I am surrounded by troubles, [God] will protect me from the anger of my enemies. —Psalm 138:7
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. —Isaiah 40:30-31
Because the heart of our God is full of mercy towards us, the first light of Heaven shall come to visit us—to shine on those who lie in darkness and under the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the path of peace.—Luke 1:78-79
I hear Your word eternal, spoken now to me: I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; i will remove from you your heart of stone and five you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you.—Ezekiel 36:26-27
CLOSING PRAYER
Father, help me to live this day to the full, being true to You, in every way.
Jesus, help me to give myself away to others, being kind to everyone I meet.
Spirit, help me to love the lost, proclaiming Christ in all I do and say.
Amen.
The First Coming of the Messiah — Part IV
READ
This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly. As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet:
“Look! The virgin will conceive a child!
She will give birth to a son,
and they will call him Immanuel,
which means ‘God is with us.’”When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.
—Matthew 1:18-25
Love (Joseph) by Poor Bishop Hooper
In the middle of the night
That’s always been when You set me right Sometimes
I’m weary to close my eyes
I tremble at the thought of all that You could want this time
So come on Spirit, would you get right to it
Oh I think I’ve dreamed of this
Before seen glimpses in the mist
'Oh son of David do not be afraid
Let this love befriend you like a desert to the rain
For the girl before you is one I’ve made
The simple beauty that you’ve seen is still the one you’ll take
It's not at all what your diffidence is telling you to think
'Oh I think you’ve dreamed of this
Before you just didn’t have the score
To the symphony of love that God’s been drawing up and from
His overflowing heart a piece that never ends yet ends in eternity
And He’s folding you into a fatherhood like no one could
To take a son that isn’t yours adopt the One who will adopt the world
There will be no glory for you all the glory will be given
To the Son you’ll raise up but I hate to say you’ll never see it His love...'
I know I’ve heard this too many times to tell
Isaiah said it ‘call him Immanuel’ He’ll be with everyone
But I'll have Him somehow more
My hand shall feed his mouth as I partner with your favor
Be a father to the One who’s father is You
Who knew I'd get to watch perfection grow up
I've built things all my life but never built love
I'll do everything you command, and I thank you
God I thank you