Stress Test Devotional May 4
May 04, 2024
REVELATION 2:4
“But I have this against you , that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”
1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-3
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Unfortunately, the defense of orthodoxy, without love, is unacceptable to God. As Paul teaches in Corinthians, no deeds done without love have any power or meaning. Angelic speech, great vision, miracle-working faith, prophetic power, epic generosity, heroic sacrifice—all count for nothing without love.
We do not know whether the missing love is love for Christ or love for one another or both. But somehow, amid the work and perseverance, agape has withered. It is a wondrous thing that Christ most wants our love. He craves our time and attention and the intimacy that comes with connection. He wants to fill us with love and joy. Obedience alone misses the point—we were made for relationships more than duty.
PRAYER
Wonderful Savior, let me enjoy my relationship with you, savoring times of quiet and meditation, celebrating insights and direction, following impulses of praise and thanksgiving. Do not let the spring of your spirit go dry within me. I ask in your powerful and beautiful name. Amen.
