May 23: KEEP IT SIMPLE: LOVE EVERYBODY, ALWAYS.

Affirmation: I find balance between giving and receiving.
Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

“Jesus replied, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat. We have here only five loaves of bread and two fish,” they answered. Bring them here to me,” he said. (Matthew 14:16-18)

Pay attention. Do this, and let God do His part.
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Practice, Personalize, Ponder: Continue to memorize these three verses so you have them with you each day. Consider journaling your thoughts. I have a stack of note cards with the scriptures I have memorized so I can quickly access them. Today ponder, personalize and practice the final sentence.

Focus on God’s peace that is beyond our comprehension.


Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians ­4:4-7 NIV

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Walk in Grace. Live in Love. By Bob Goff 


May 23

GOD'S LOVE ISN'T AS COMPLICATED AS 
ALL OUR DISCUSSIONS ABOUT IT. KEEP IT SIMPLE: LOVE EVERYBODY, ALWAYS. 

The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 
MATTHEW 23:2-3 

God is love. He said so. It's easy to get confused when you stroll through the Old Testament and find harrowing tales of wars between people with names ending in -ites. Where is the God supposedly synonymous with love in those stories? Or what about when the Bible reads like a phone book and lists off generations of people with hard-to-pronounce names? (We're talking about you, Gomer and Uz.) 


If God is love, we should spend our effort learning love, not dwelling on parts of the Old Testament God said He came to fulfill. It may feel good to correct someone's pronunciation of an obscure place in the Middle East or walk them through a maze of theological steps in the Minor Prophets. Some people delight in masking their own insecurity by making others feel small. They make faith complicated. Jesus had some stern words for them then and no doubt will in the future. 


There is no end to the learning the Bible can provide. But if we're learning to be "right" instead of learning to love people the way Jesus did, we've missed the lesson. 


There's nothing for us to gain from practicing love-no base pay, no guar­anteed tenure, no arm patch or leg up in spiritual discussions. Instead, we'll find ourselves succeeding in introducing people to the real Jesus, not the one often argued about. We'll have hearts ready to learn what love is all about and hands ready to help whoever love is chasing. And spoiler alert, it's every person you ever have met or will meet. 


God's love isn't as complicated as our discussions about it are. Keep it simple: love everybody, always. 


What simple act of love can you do for someone right now? 

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