May 7 - Keep On Loving

Today's Reading:
Song of Songs 1:1-4:16
Hebrews 13:1-25
Psalm 135:1-12 
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Focus Verses:
Hebrews 13:1-3
1 Keep on loving each other as brothers. 2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. 3 Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

Insight:
Love, benevolence, social justice, and empathy are all essential to living out our faith in God. We can't truly follow the way of Jesus with being loving, hospitable, and caring. Followers of Christ must have soft hearts toward those who are suffering—the marginalized, the mistreated, the foreign, the forgotten, the overlooked, and the abandoned.

Response and Action:
I want to live with Christ-like love for my Christian brothers and sisters. I want my actions and attitudes to be guided by a genuine concern and love for all people. I must open my eyes to the needs of people around me. I need to cultivate a compassion and empathy for those who are suffering or in need, and take action to help them. As I follow Christ, I want to learn how to be a helper and friend for those who are in difficult circumstances.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is darkness, light. Grant that I might not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving we receive; it is in pardoning, we receive pardon; it is in giving that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

Spiritual Formation Verses: 1 John 3:16-17 
16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

Resources:
Practical Justice: Living Off-Center in a Self-Centered World
by Kevin Blue