Back to School

Pause

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.’”

Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV)

How do you love God? How do you show God your love with all of your heart? Have you ever considered the question?

Many of you are starting back to school this week. With this new start is a great time to consider how God is asking you to love fully and to let go of anything that holds you back.

Listen

I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not angels or rulers, not present things or future things, not powers or height or depth, or any other thing that is created.

Romans 8:38-39

Think

Every parent’s great fear is to lose their child. When my oldest daughter was three, she decided to play hide-and-go-seek while shopping with her mom, but she didn’t tell her they were playing. Needless to say, my wife was scared when our daughter was lost in the store. Our daughter was found very quickly hiding in a clothes rack, but I remember later that day my wife reliving how frantic she was to be separated from our daughter, who would not answer her when she yelled for her. The fear was real and heartbreaking despite our daughter only being lost for a few minutes.

Paul writes the most hope-filled promise in all of scripture in Romans 8: “I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord…”

If you live in fear that you are separated from God’s love, have no fear — nothing can separate you from God’s love. There is no game of hide-and-go-seek large enough to separate you from God’s love. It wraps around you; it protects you. Thanks be to God that nothing can keep you from God’s deep and never-ending love for your life.

Josh Speight

Pray

God, thank you for loving me. Your promise that nothing can separate me from your love is the greatest hope in my life. Help me to trust in your love today. Amen.

Go

Go forth now in the power of the Spirit of God to be God’s helper in the world, letting go of any worry, loving God with all your heart along the way.