Devotional

Christ's Loveliness Reflected in His People

Some good Christians are afraid to give notice to any lovely virtues which may appear here and there among God's people lest they detract from the glory of Christ. Such timidity is understandable, but uncalled for. If we know to begin with that all goodness is from Christ, that all sweetness, all holiness, all loveliness are out of Him and from Him and in Him, we will not hesitate to recognize moral excellence wherever it may occur on this dark planet. If a ray of holy light shines out from any man's life, it must be because Christ is there shining in secret in a human breast, and we should be quick to catch this dim glimpse of the Light of the World again incarnated in a human being. The glory of Christ will not suffer from this frank and eager acknowledgment of virtue where we find it. Because we are sentient beings, we must have some love-motivation to keep us running. This fact (on a lower level) is well known to everyone. God knew this (for He made us) and gave us the supreme love-Object of the universe to fire our hearts with holy passion. That Object is Jesus. The Christian faith may be summed up in the love of Jesus. To love Him enough is to be sweetly and wonderfully free. To love Him as He should be loved is to know at once complete release from religious forms and traditions. It is to reach the goal of life even here below.  A.W. Tozier

Verse

And let the loveliness of our Lord, our God, rest on us, confirming the work that we do. Oh, yes. Affirm the work that we do! (The Message). Psalm 90:17

Thought

Experiencing Christ's love and loving Him brings a new dimension to daily living. We serve Him, we obey Him, we follow Him because we love Him! Have we opened ourselves to that love?

Prayer

May Your loveliness rest on me and all your people. It is that loveliness that confirms the work we do. We serve You as an expression of our love for You.