DAY 20 OF ELUL MEDITATIONS
ELUL DAY 20
POINTS TO PONDER AND CONSIDER
- Looking back over the days of your life so far; have you shown compassion to your fellowman?_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What are the elements that work together to make a person feel compassion? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Can you recall times that God has shown compassion to you through the acts of others?__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Are there any areas of your life that are lacking compassion? How can you go about changing those places?
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ELUL MEDITATION FOR DAY 20
PONDERING THE NATURE OF GOD
GOD IS LOVE
I’ve heard that same simple little verse forever.
It was the very first thing I learned in Sunday School as a little girl; “God is love.”
Now that I’m an old lady; I will tell you this is my very favorite part of the wonderful attributes of God’s nature.
For a long time in our years together; my husband was a pastor. When he was first ordained for the priesthood, we were counselled by a kind and loving Bishop who naturally displayed this attribute of God’s in his own daily life.
On that lovely ordination day; He talked to us with his lovely wife standing by his side, and during that time he gave us the best advice he could have ever imparted to a couple starting out in ministry.
He said; “No matter what happens down the road, in any circumstances, good or bad; the proper answer is always love. If you show the love of God to your congregation; God will take care of everything else. Above all things; always remember that God is love.”
This one astonishingly simple, yet astonishingly profound statement was our motto during all the years that my husband served as a bi-vocational minister. Love was always the first priority. It helped to keep every other priority in the proper place.
When we needed balance; love showed the way to achieve it.
If times got tough; love came through just in time with laughter and good cheer.
During the hard and sad places we had to travel some days; love always showed up and God’s presence followed close behind; changing our outlook on everything, every time.
When material things were few; love brought abundance.
If pain and heartache were on the schedule; love brought healing.
Our dear Bishop didn’t learn these words of wisdom on his own. He had been taught by the One who knew that love was the greatest of all of His powerful and majestic attributes.
The very thing that keeps God holy, righteous and true is love.
Love is the center point from which all other things miraculous are derived.
It was love that allowed God to give the life of His Only Begotten Son on a cross to save you and me.
Love was what made God choose a strange and peculiar group of people to lead all of the nations.
The way that God communicated with Moses and gave all of the people the very best ways to live for a very wonderful life came strictly out of love.
Again; the way God didn’t turn away when Moses pleaded for forgiveness’ when the people committed spiritual adultery; came from God’s deep, deep love for mankind.
The patience and the perseverance that Jesus showed with His disciples; came from deep-rooted love.
Feelings of blessed honor which came to Mary for bearing the Child of God came from being loved and cared for by The God of The Universe.
The miracles of healing, both for individual people and nations came from the hand of God because of his love and care for all people.
Splendor and beauty in worship in the building of the wilderness tabernacle came from God’s love and desire to move closer and closer to men; his love made him desire to dwell with them in spite of their lack of holiness.
Tears in the eyes of Jesus flowed forth because of the love in His heart for Lazarus, and all of those who loved Lazarus. There were even more tears shed over the plight of Jerusalem, the Beloved City.
The death of Jesus on the cross was the greatest love of all.
God The Father loved us so much that He allowed this; though Jesus didn’t deserve to die at all. Taking on our sins and dying in our place showed the heart of Christ as he went lovingly about the greatest mission of his life.
Then; the Resurrection proved this love to be pure and true and everlasting! Love brought us to the place of salvation and eternal life with God forever.
Every year this love of God brings us to a season of pure joy!
As we strive to grow closer and closer to God and desire to look into His face; we must also desire to reflect this same love that has been shown to us and let it flow outward unto the many others that we meet along the way.
It is God’s love that should be flowing through our veins from the pure and righteous blood of Jesus.
If we continue to look at God’s nature; and we will do that for the rest of this season of Elul; we will begin to realize that the list of wonderful attributes goes on and on and on.
God is so amazing that his nature can’t be narrowed down to only a few good attributes.
As we search through and ponder each one; I think the greatest attribute of the nature of God is love.
Love is able to overcome anything.
As we pray for God to guide us on through our days toward The Feast of Trumpets and then through the Days of Awe and all the way toward The Day of Atonement; let us remember to do everything within our power to reflect God’s love.
If we can get the “love” part of living right; everything else will follow.
Ask for God’s help and let Him lead you down the right paths. When you get to the end of the journey you will be astounded at how much the attribute of love has changed everything along the way.