Heart-Work

'A reflection of prayer and devotion, that we might obey the command of God'

God is love
‘Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.’ (1 John 4:7-8)

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit eternally coexist in a perfect relationship of love. Let us praise God who is the Author and Perfector of love!

Love gives life
‘This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.’ (1 John 4:9)

Perfect love is found in God’s redemptive response to our rebellion and sin. Let us praise God for He truly is Emmanuel- God with us!

Love is sacrificial
‘This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.’ (1 John 4:10)

God graciously moves toward a broken world and loves us before we ever comprehend loving Him. Let us praise the Lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world!

Love Exemplified
‘Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.’ (1 John 4:11)

In the cross, His great love and rich mercy is the example we must follow. Let us praise the Father who generously sent the Son!

Love perfected
‘No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.’ (1 John 4:12)

Solely by His initiating love can we perfectly love both God and neighbor. Let us praise the True Vine, our source of every good thing.

This is the work of a heart born of God...
‘And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.’ (1 John 3:23)

Heart-Work is love-obedience...
‘Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."’ (Mathew 22:37-39)

Our love for God expresses itself in a life-long pursuit of loving others.

Reflect
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” (Mathew 22:37-38)

Am I loving God with all my heart? With all my soul? With all my mind?

Reflect
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15)

Whom or what truly consumes my thoughts? Am I pursuing my kingdom or the Lord’s?

Reflect
‘The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.’ (1 John 2:4-6)

Do my actions reflect my words? Am I fully submitted to the Master? How am I walking?

Loving Neighbor
“And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'” (Mathew 22:39)

Who is my neighbor?
When we ask this question we actually want to shrink our scope of responsibility to others. We wish to approach God on our terms not His, for He requires and demands our all.

The true question is ‘Who isn’t my neighbor?’ We must love completely as God loves us.

Reflect
Do I love my neighbor regardless of origin? Their behavior? Their appearance? Their familiarity?

Do I love my neighbor regardless of how they treat me? Regardless of the personal cost?

Forgive One Another: get your heart right
‘”For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”’ (Mathew 6:14-15)

Forgiveness is at the heart of the Father. We are strongly exhorted in the Word to forgive one another and follow His example. Get right with people in your life. Confess any unforgiveness in your heart, be forgiven by the Father and then forgive others.

Pray for the church, our brothers and sisters in Christ
Kneel before the Father, from whom your name is derived, and intercede for the Church:

• Pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen us all with power through his Spirit in our inner being.
• Pray that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith.
• Pray that we, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge.
• Pray that we all may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God.

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” (Ephesians 3: 20-21)

Pray for the lost, our neighbors who are unredeemed
Kneel before the Father and intercede for the lost, that they will be reached with the Gospel:

• Pray that our motives to love and reach others will be pure, renouncing secret and shameful ways. That we do not resort to deception, or distort the word of God.
• Pray that we set forth the truth plainly, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.
• Pray for the perishing, those whom the god of this age has blinded so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
• Pray that we have faith in the God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," who made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

‘After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb."’ (Rev 7:9)