Be Like Your Father: Be Like Your Father

 

MY DAILY COVENANT WITH GOD DEVOTIONAL

Be Like Your Father

Topic: Be Like Your Father   

Text: Ephesians 5:1 – 2                        

Here in our scriptural reading for the day, Paul reminds us that our perfect example is God. We haven’t see God the Father or God the Holy Spirit. It is God the Son that we have heard about Him in the Scriptures. When Paul said that we should imitate God, he was talking about Christ. In Matthew 5:48, Jesus said, "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” This is what our call as Christians demand.

In being like our father in heaven, we should imitate;

1) His acts of mercy (Luke 6:36).

2) His compassionate life (Mark 1:41; Luke 7:11 – 15). We should also show compassion to people especially those in need.

3) We should love as He loves us (John 3:16; 13:34; 15:12.)

4) We shouldn’t condemn people (John 3:17; 8:10, 11).

5) We should be like Him in obedience (Philippians 2:5 – 11).

6) We should be just and maintain justice too (Isaiah 30:18).   

Just as children imitate their parents, we should follow God’s example. His great love for us led Him to sacrifice Himself so that we might live. Our love for others should be of the same kind; a love that goes beyond affection to self-sacrificing service. We have reason for everlasting gratitude to God that He has given us a perfect example; and it should be our great object perfectly to imitate it.   

Food for Thought: Matthew 5:48

Memory verse: Ephesians 5 v 1

Prayer: God, make me perfect as you are as I imitate you daily through godly living in Jesus name.

Virtues That Promote Brotherliness: Devotion for Monday August 31, 2020

MY DAILY COVENANT WITH GOD DEVOTIONAL

Devotion for Monday August 31, 2020

Topic:  Virtues That Promote Brotherliness          

Text: Colossians 3:12 – 17                  

In our text for today, Paul continued to reveal what a new man in Christ should be and the things that will promote brotherliness among Christians and how to live for God. All the virtues that Paul encourages us to develop (to put on) are perfectly bound together by love.

As we clothe ourselves with these virtues, the last garment we are to put on is love, which holds all of the others in place. To practice any list of virtues without practicing love will lead to distortion, fragmentation, and stagnation (1 Corinthians 13:3).

He also offers a strategy to help us live for God day by day. They are (1) Imitate Christ’s compassionate, forgiving attitude (Colossians 3:12 – 13); (2) let love guide your life (Colossians 3:14); (3) let the peace of Christ rule in your heart (Colossians 3:15); (4) always be thankful (3:15); (5) keep God’s Word in you at all times (Colossians 3:16); (6) live as Jesus Christ’s representative (Colossians 3:17). These are ways to live well and for God. Love binds together all the other graces into one whole and thus making the Christian character complete.

Are these virtues evident in your life? If not, how do you intend to inculcate them into your life so that Christ will be seen in you?

Food for Thought: All the Christian graces are bound together in love. It is the source of them all.

Memory verse: Colossians 3 v 14

Prayer: Almighty God, sow in my heart the virtue of love for you and humanity which is the root for all other Christian virtues.