Feb 2 Daily Devotional

Feb 2: Agape Love (Unconditional Love)

  • Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 – Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable; it keeps no record of wrongs; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
  • Reflection: Although we often use this scripture about love for weddings, it is intended as a description of holy love. Unconditional love is patient, kind, compassionate, and devoid of selfishness. Humans aspire to this love, yet we intrinsically fall short of this ideal of holistic love, which arises from Godself. Yet we reflect such love in our connections to each other, even though we do so imperfectly.
    Rev Nadia Bolz-Weber says, “Agape love does not come from us.  But it is the love that is shared between us because Agape love is only possible through the indwelling of God’s Spirit.  You can’t actually muster it up yourself.
    Because on our own we love imperfectly.  We love awkwardly and with selfish motives and begrudging hearts.  Our own love can be showoffy or miserly or only given when we feel like it. But the love of God for the children of God is no such thing. And God desires God’s children to love one another too much for God to leave it to what’s on our own hearts.
    See, agape love is how we love God’s friends. How we show care and hospitality toward others based solely on their belovedness to God.”
    Consider how your connection to such love manifests in your interactions with others.
  • Spiritual Practice Prompt: Identify a person you to whom you may show some form of unconditional love to this week.

SONGS:


Love is a place that already exists inside of you, but is also greater than you. That’s the paradox. It’s within you and yet beyond you. This creates a sense of abundance and more-than-enoughness, which is precisely the satisfaction and deep peace of the True Self. You know you’ve found a well that will never go dry, as Jesus says (see John 4:13-14). Your True Self, God’s Love in you, cannot be exhausted. — Richard Rohr, full commentary: https://wmpaulyoung.com/love-is-who-you-are/

Feb 2 Daily Devotional
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