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Listen while you read: "Jesus Loves Me This I Know"1
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Growing up, I was fairly oblivious to the concerns that my parents were then experiencing: money, household, job security, school schedules, and so on. Global and political crises of our country seemed peripheral. My main concerns were playing outside with my friends, reading, and having fun. Looking back, what made our upbringing possible was the steady and deep love that our parents had for us, and the sacrifices and decisions that they made to allow us that kind of unaware, peaceful, and adventurous childhood. That was our assurance.
The way that we have that same kind of assurance in our spiritual lives, as growing Christians, is through the Holy Spirit, the abiding presence of Jesus within us.
1 John 4:13-16 – By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. (NKJV)
God should be the steady undercurrent in our lives, changing us from the inside out, educating us, and showing us how to acknowledge Jesus for Who He really is. God's amazing power within us allows us to live the life of love, for He is the source. We can say with confidence that love is not about ourselves, our friends' opinions, or what the latest philosophy says. With Him as our centre, we love unselfishly. Loving in our own power is exhausting!
Here are the central truths about God and how He saves us. Jesus is the promised Saviour, Whom we can know and in Whom we can abide. By recognizing and confessing Him as God's Son, He abides in us, and we are in fellowship with Him. Believing in Him and loving others is the evidence that God has taken hold of us.
My childhood was one of complete trust in the loving environment that my parents provided. Perhaps that was not your experience, but you can reach out now and take the love and grace that God is offering; you can believe and experience it. In this new existence, you have the stable foundation that will not shake with the onslaught of troubles and anxiety over the world's upheavals. Reach out and take the indescribable gift.
Prayer: God our Father, thank You that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, for we are more than conquerors through Him Who loves us. Endow us with that peace that comes from Your firm foundation of love and grace. Amen.
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About the author:
Shirley Moulton <shirley_moulton@yahoo.ca>
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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Thanks for the encouragement, Shirley.
Thank you for sharing what we all need to hear!
Thanks, Shirley, for another of your very encouraging writings. Truly we have a very firm foundation in our loving Lord.
Blessings for these devotionals you prepare.
Thank you so much for your message and prayer of comfort.
I am also thankful for the love and care of my parents as we went through World war Two in Holland. We lived through the Battle of Arnhem in September of 1944, lived in our basement for app. five days, and lost our home to fire as a basket with shells went through our roof and ‘friendly fire” set it and the house on fire.
We fled and spent the last fall and winter with relatives.
Through all this my parents never made us kids, of which I turned 12 that month, feel anxious.
I am 91 now but still thank the Lord for all this.
(ON)
Dear Shirley,
Thank you for your message today. Your early childhood experiences sound like a dream to me. Why is this? My childhood was the total opposite; fear, anxiety, having to worry about things that were not my responsibility; self-consciousness; and the lack of love and compassion. I could go on but I will stop here. The good news is that my lifeline was Jesus. I had unlimited access to our family Bible and I loved the stories in it. Those early Bible stories shaped my whole life and here I am today witnessing for Jesus. I still have a far way to go but one thing I know for sure is that Jesus Christ is my guide, and I am holding on to Him until the end of my journey here on earth. Thank you for sharing your childhood experiences with me today.
Blessings!
Good morning, Shirley,
Your devotional really resonated with me. My childhood was just like you described in your first paragraph – so wonderful. I wish everyone’s childhood could be like that. I have seen the changes from mine to my own children’s which was somewhat similar to my grandchild’s which was different and to now with so many children facing lives that are hard to imagine. I know that children in my time also faced war in their countries and famine and other things but the news didn’t travel in the same way as it does now and so I was unaware. Now days it would be hard to shield children from what is happening around the world. It is better or worse – hard to know but it is different. However as you point out Jesus’ love is there and will always be there for those who reach out and believe.
Thank you for sharing your experience and encouraging others to believe. Blessings.
Like you, loving, caring parents and now it is my Heavenly Father who cares for me.
Good morning, Shirley,
Your devotional touched me deeply. My childhood was “a flicker of light, my mother, in the shroud of darkness, my father.”
I love when people share stories about wonderful and loving childhoods.
It was ever a hope and a dream for my mother, brother and I, The Three Musketeers, to have each other’s back and my mother giving us the love she never received as a child.
Mum more than made up for need to walk on eggshells and be quiet when my father was around. I learned to fear him at an early age and the deep trauma he inflicted upon us daily was formative in changing “The Three Musketeers” into wounded, self-conscious, hurt, and damaged individuals.
I believe the constant verbal, psychological, and mental abuse would have done us in if not for Jesus. I once read in the Bible that God in Heaven was my real Father and that began a level of acceptance for my earthly father and eventually love for him, but that took me over 40 years to achieve. My earthly father has, and does, reek daily havoc upon us even today, but he’s mellowed slightly by exposure to The Word and going to church for many years now. God is Gracious, Kind, Protective of His Children – I am joyous to call Him, Father! Amen.
Be blessed, Shirley!
Keep writing in God’s Holy Name, I pray!