![]() Both actions can bring about great healing and joy. If you have hurt another person, be brave and offer him or her an honest apology. If you’ve been hurt in the past, ask a trusted friend to help you process what happened.That can be scary at times, but when we choose to be vulnerable, we experience the deeper, more fulfilling relationships God wants us to enjoy. If we can give ourselves to this process, we’ll eventually be willing to take risks again-to open up and share our true self. The Lord calls us to love and forgive one another, just as He has done with us (Eph. Doing so can help us recover from past pain and find a way forward, but we can’t remain in that state forever. When that happens, we might find it helpful to limit-for a time-the people we allow into our life. At some point, we’re likely to fail each other. Nor does it mean we’ll avoid getting hurt along the way. ![]() God made us to serve and live alongside one another, but that doesn’t mean it will be easy. This month, we explored what it means to be members of a community-along with the blessings and requirements that come with such involvement. All rights reserved.To get the most out of this devotion, set aside time to read the scriptures referenced throughout. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Scripture is quoted from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®). May your future be one of loving out of faith. We have something so solid to cling to in a time when everything else seems to be so unreliable – let's share that with others. I want to be able to love others in a way that shows them my faith in Jesus is real. I want to keep fuelling the fire of my faith so that I can love others deeper. Loving out of faith is something that I want to make a priority for this year. That love is more than enough to conquer any trial, set free any captive of fear, loneliness, depression or sickness. When our faith is on track, the love that comes from that place will burst with freedom, color, light, laughter, joy and the Spirit of Jesus. We have the power to love at any time, but the most powerful love comes from a place of faith. A love that lasts and a love that has faith in them. Something else that this pandemic is teaching me is the importance of love. My prayer for the nations is that faith arises in all of us, more than ever before. When our minds go to a place of darkness and we don’t know if we can make it through, we need to go straight back to Jesus. Faith that ‘He’s got us’, faith that He will provide for us, faith that His love is all we will ever need. We need our core to be built on faith in Jesus every second of the day. A foundation that can withstand any storm, any pandemic, any sickness, any job loss, any isolation, any grief and most importantly - at ANY time. This passage has taught me to make sure that every part of my being is grounded and built on a firm foundation. ![]() Many of us did not expect a global pandemic to shake the very foundations our lives are built on, yet here we are - over two years later. I think you’d agree with me that Covid-19 was very much an unexpected event. ![]() This passage has found a very real and new meaning in my life. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it” (Matthew 7:24-27 ESV). And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. However, sometimes it takes an event such as this to truly shake my spirit and realize the importance of what is written down right in front of me. A heart-breaking number of lives were lost, jobs taken away, many struggled to feed their families, and the loving touch of those we hold dear was restricted - and became something the world feared.įor the past two years, Covid got me thinking about a very well-known passage in the Bible that I’ve read over and over again my whole life. The Covid-19 pandemic caused widespread devastation - from physical and mental health, to the economy and beyond.
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