DAY 20 OF ELUL MEDITATIONS
ELUL DAY 20
POINTS TO PONDER AHEAD TO PREPARE FOR DAY 21
- Looking back over the days of your life, have you shown compassion to your fellowman?____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- What are the elements that work together to make a person feel compassion? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
- Can you recall times when 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. “God is love.” It was the very first verse I learned in Sunday School as a little girl, Now that I’m an old lady, this is my favorite part of all the amazing attributes of God’s nature.
It reminds me of all the many times when love has been poured into my own life. For example, I cherish another memory from a time when my husband was a pastor. These days he likes to say he is retired, but does that ever really happen with ministry? When he was first ordained as a priest we were counseled by a kind and loving Bishop who hailed from Mississippi. This very humble man naturally displayed this attribute of God’s which we call “love.”
LOVE PROVES TRUE
On that lovely ordination day, he counseled us both. His lovely wife was there standing faithfully by his side. During that special 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.” I’ve never forgotten his words that day. They have proved to be true over and over again.
This one, astonishingly simple yet profound statement, became our motto for ministry. It was the way we chose to operate 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.
EXAMPLES WE EXPERIENCED
When we needed balance, love showed the way to achieve it.
If times got tough, love came through. Love was always just in time. It brought friends. Their names were “laughter” and “good cheer.” During the hard and sad places of some days, love always showed up. God’s presence followed close behind. Love guaranteed that God would participate. That one perfect combination was always 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.
LOVE GROWS WHEN IT IS PRACTICED
Our dear Bishop didn’t learn these words of wisdom on his own. He was taught by the One who knew that love was the greatest of all of His powerful and majestic attributes. Love is the very important attribute which keeps God holy, righteous and true. Everything springs from His chesed love.
Love is the center point from which all other things are miraculously 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.
BIBLICAL EXAMPLES
The way God communicated with Moses, and how He gave all of the people the very best ways to live, came strictly out of love.
Again, the way God didn’t turn away when Moses pleaded for forgiveness after the people committed spiritual adultery was love. God’s final reaction came from His deep, deep love for mankind.
The patience and perseverance Jesus showed 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. It came because of His love and care for all people.
MORE EXAMPLES
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. He had a heart full of love for all of those who loved Lazarus.
There were even more tears shed over the plight of Jerusalem, His 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. Love allowed a way for us, though Jesus didn’t deserve to die at all. Taking on our sins and dying in our place showed the heart of Yeshua as He went lovingly about the greatest mission of his life.
POSITIVE PROOF OF GOD’S LOVE
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 straight into another season of pure joy!
As we strive to grow closer and closer to God with the desire to look into His face, we must also desire to reflect this same love that has been shown to us. We must do our part to let it flow outward unto the many others we meet along the way.
It is God’s love that should be flowing through our veins. This comes 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 how the list of God’s 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, we will see the greatest attribute of the nature of God is love.
THE ATTRIBUTE OF LOVE SURPASSES ALL OTHER ATTRIBUTES
Love is able to overcome anything.
As we pray for God to guide us through our days while we are moving toward The Feast of Trumpets, the Days of Awe, and The Day of Atonement, let us remember to do everything within our power to reflect God’s love. Part of being prepared for The Feast of Tabernacles and eventually eternity, is to learn how to reflect God’s chesed love. We must take our love for God and one another to the feast because it is a rehearsal of how we will live in eternity. Love will prevail.
As a wise Bishop once told us, “if we can get the “love” part of living right, everything else will follow.”
Ask for God’s help. Let Him lead you down the right paths. Keep practicing love. 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.
VERSE
1 John 4:8 – God is love.
PRAYER
Father, teach us to love as You do. Show us the deeper meanings of the word “chesed” and teach us this attribute. Help us to use it daily, both in our obedience to You as well as our care and concern for our neighbors. Amen
SONG
I LOOKED FOR LOVE – The Singing Americans (1986) – https://youtu.be/SC0VbYa3ZV8?si=na2rpMcQmaar-yMR
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