Daily Bible Reading
To prevent the frustration of falling behind, which most of us tend to do when following a Bible reading plan, each month of this plan gives you only twenty-five readings. Today we start a few “free days” . We encourage you to catch up on any readings you may have missed this month.
If you have finished the month’s readings, you can use these final days of the month to study the passages that challenged or intrigued you.
The Bible reading plan we are following can be found here: https://www.navigators.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/navigators-bible-reading-plan.pdf
Daily Devotion
How We Glorify God
John 15:8-12
8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.
11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
12 This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
In verse 8 of John 15, John quotes Jesus with instruction on how we as Christians can glorify God; “..that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples”. But John doesn’t stop there, in verse 9 he goes further into instruction on how we glorify God; ”…continue ye in my love”.
In verse 10, to further reinforce this, John continues to quote Jesus; “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love…”
Then, in verse 11 we see the result of obeying Jesus; ”…that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”
To retain and be full of joy we are instructed to 1. Be fruitful (this glorifies God) 2. & 3. Continually be in the love of God (live a loving life) then God’s joy will be evident in our life and we will feel FULL of God’s joy.
Then Jesus states in verse 12 that we are to “love one another as I have loved you.”
In fact, Jesus puts it this way, “This is my commandment…”
Is this an attribute, is this a product, is this what God expects of us as we walk with him? Yes, yes it is. This is a commandment for us to love one another. Can we realistically do what he did? I’m not sure that anyone truly can, but we are to try. We are to try to love others as He did. He loved sacrificially, He loved knowing there were going to be disappointments, He loved knowing that there would be failures yet still HE LOVED ME.
And to truly be His disciple, I must love others.
~ Pastor Seagraves