The Only Thing That Matters
How do you express your faith?
Verse of the Day
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
Today’s Devotional
Jesus doesn’t care about my qualifications. He doesn’t want my Christian resume. He doesn’t want me to brag about sins I’ve avoided, or rituals I have faithfully followed. If we look at the life of Jesus, he wasn’t big on following religious rules. He healed on the Sabbath. He dined with the outcasts. He talked to women of the “wrong” heritage (like the Samaritan woman). He encouraged rejecting social norms (in the story of the good Samaritan). He even spent a lot of His time allowing the religious leaders to question Him. Which tells me He was interested in their hearts as well.
The whole story of the Bible is a love story. God LOVES his people. And we are all his people. He tries over and over and over to capture our hearts and to help us remember his goodness. He gives us rules that are in our best interests, and we rebel. We feel restricted. Yet, even though it feels counterintuitive, what God is actually offering us is freedom. By following God’s plan, we are free.
If, by faith, I love God, then I will express that love by my worship and time spent with God. I will seek to learn everything I can about the nature and character of God. I will sit quietly at his feet and be in awe that he loves me. I will become aware of God’s love for me personally. In doing that, I will learn to love myself. If God loves me in my imperfection, who am I to not love myself? As that happens, I will be filled with the love of God and it will pour out of my life onto others. But it all begins with the love of God and the discovery of the life changing truth of that love. I am merely a vessel.
If faith being expressed through love is the only thing that really matters, how am I doing? Sometimes, I am still trying to “perform”. If I’m being honest, my performance is an effort to earn love and/or approval. Which is the equivalent of trying to earn loyalty rewards from Kroger while I’m shopping at Walmart. It just doesn’t work. Sometimes, I am trying to “check the box” of time spent with God – trying to improve my Christian resume. But…what if my husband had a task list for the day and spending time with me was on that list? I’m guessing that would not be the best choice for relationship building.
My faith needs to have arms and legs and words. And according to this verse, those words and actions need to be all about love. Loving God, loving myself, loving others. That’s how my faith works, grows and becomes infectious. And that’s all that really has value.
So…what if we asked for discernment of how our faith can express itself in love today? God, increase my little faith. Help me to know how my faith can express itself in love to every single person I encounter today.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
When, where, and how have you tried to improve your Christian resume?
How does it make you feel that your resume doesn’t have value?
How can your faith have arms, legs, and words of love today?
Are you willing to ask God for discernment in how your faith can express itself in love? If so, write down that prayer.