DAILY DISCIPLINE #31
by Colleen Donahue

"And I pray that you may...grasp how wide and high and long and deep is the love of Christ..." Ephesians 3:17b,18

To write about any aspect of God or His character is almost an impossibility. After all, how can the pot tell all about the potter that designed and made it? Or how can we as finite men tell about the infinite, almighty God? Yet, the Bible itself says:

"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight." Jeremiah 9:23-24

It's amazing to think that our Creator really wants us to understand and know Him. In fact, the whole creation speaks of God, and His character is threaded all throughout the Bible. In the next two studies, I'd like us to look at two rather opposing aspects of God--one being His great love, the other His discipline and wrath.

To talk of God's love with only words is difficult because we have made love almost a trite and "selfish virtue". God's love was not just talk. It was literally poured out to us as He watched His Son bleed to death on a lonely cross. Why? So that all mankind throughout the centuries could have a relationship with Him--only possible if our sinful natures were exchanged with the life of God's own Spirit. The love that God has for us is so deep that it is not what you feel but rather a fact.

Only as we take our position as God's children can we experience its depth. Along with His love always comes His mercy and we can only marvel at how God has lifted us up to sit with Him in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:4-6) even while we live in a fallen world. Our study can only attempt a beginning at showing.....

GOD'S LOVE AND MERCY

Day 1- When did God first begin to love us?
Jeremiah 31:3

Day 2 -How long will He continue to do so?
Psalm 118:1-4

Day 3 -What was God's motive in delivering the Israelites from their slavery in the land of Egypt?
Deuteronomy 7:8

Day 4 -How did God show His love in a physical, tangible way to the Israelites that He loved so much?
Hosea 11:1-4

Day 5 -What did God want from the Israelites in exchange for His love?
Hosea 12:6

Day 6 -How does Moses describe God in these verses?
Exodus 34:6-7

Day 7 -How did David describe the boundlessness of God's love?
Psalm 108:4 / Psalm 119:64

Day 8 -Why doesn't God just consume man for all the wickedness that goes on around us?
Lamentations 3:22

Day 9 -What is the amazing thing about God's mercies and compassion towards us?
Lamentations 3:23

Day 10- Who is God's love continually toward?
Psalms 103:11, 17

Day 11 -How did God demonstrate the greatest love that one can have toward another?
John 15:13

Day 12 -What was the divine test of God's true love for us?
John 3:16 / Romans 5:8 / I John 4:9-10

Day 13 -The wounds that Christ suffered at Calvary remain as permanent marks of the love God has for us. How did Isaiah allude to this, thousands of years before Christ would physically die?
Isaiah 49:15-16

Day 14 -Since the death of Christ what is the vehicle of God's love extending over the earth?
Romans 5:5

Day 15 -As we seek to follow God, one thing becomes very clear--God did not save us because we are anything good in ourselves. If that is the case why did He save us?
Titus 3:5

Day 16 -God never delights in punishment or in allowing anything to happen to the children He loves. But what is needful for us when we have sinned and rebelled in any way?
Joel 2:12-13 / Hosea 14:1-2

Day 17 -Time and again God's love and forgiveness go hand in hand. Whenever we genuinely repent (i.e. stop sinning and turn towards God) what does God do?
Hosea 14:4

Day 18 -What is the result for us of a God who has shown great love and mercy to us?
Ephesians 2:4-5

Day 19 -Because of the Father's love for us, what is our relationship to Him?
I John 3:1

Day 20 -What should be the natural result of God's loving us?
I John 4:11-12.

Day 21 -How are we even able to love others?
I John 4:7-8,19

Day 22 -What is incompatible with love?
I John 4:18,20

Day 23 -How do we remain in God's love?
John 15:10

Day 24 -Can anything separate us from the love that God has for us?
Romans 8:38-39

Day 25 -What does God delight in?
Micah 7:18

God has laid out for us what His love is to us and therefore how our love should be toward one another.

Day 26- Write out all the positive things that love is.
I Corinthians 13:4-8

Day 27 -Write down what love is not.
I Corinthians 13:4-8

Day 28 -Real love is never expressed so much in words as it is in actions. God has not excluded Himself from this.
Psalms 116:1-8 / Psalms 118:5,13-14

Day 29 -What will real love from God include in our life?
Revelation 3:19

Day 30 -What is our heart response to a God who loves us so dearly?
Revelation 1:5b-6a

 

Daily Discipline Table of Contents