Topic: Unconditional Love [Saturday April 22, 2017]
Text: Psalm 116:1-9
Key Verse: “I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications” (Psalm 116:1).
A popular children story named “The giving tree” speaks of the life of an apple tree and a boy. In the story, the boy was always coming to the tree because of what he could get at any stage of his life and after which he would leave the tree alone. The tree gave him apples, branches and trunk until she had nothing to give.
And lastly the boy, now old, came one more time to the tree because he had need of some place to rest, and the giving tree still gave her stump to him because that was all she had left. Although the writer of this psalm expresses his love and gratitude in view of the mercies of God, goodness and deliverance, we love God because He first loved us. Genuinely redeemed Christians should love God unconditionally. Like the boy in the giving tree story, some people love the Lord and come to Him as long as He hears their prayers. What if the Lord delays answers? God wants us to love Him for who He is because He first loved and continues to love us.
Many people find it hard to believe the love story of God partly because we see His love from our point of view and not His. Human love is based on conditions. We love people because they are our relations, because they love us and because we know them. But God is different, He loves us unconditionally and requires no dime from us for the love. If the reason you love God is other than the fact that He loves you and has saved you, then your love may not be a perfect one.
Remember how Satan accused Job, thinking that his love for God was because of the blessings and hedge God built around him. But he found out otherwise. Be sure that your love will always be tested to see what sort it is. We must grow in our walk with God to love Him just for His sake.
Thought for the day: The measure of true love is in its commitment, with no strings attached.
Bible Reading in one Year: Judges 8-10
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.