Day 339 Bible Reading

1 John 5: 4

“For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”

I love this line from 1 John 5. We are all born of God, but it is faith that helps up to overcome the world. When I look at how I have overcome any challenge in my life, I always needed faith to do it. Sometimes it was a little faith, but other times I needed as much faith as I could muster to overcome the difficult challenges in my life. And Jesus was my role model for faith. Jesus had so much faith in himself and his disciples. He never gave up. He kept on going even though there wasn’t any physical evidence to back him up. His faith never wavered.

 Day 338 Bible Reading

I John 4: 7

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”

I have heard this line from 1 John 4 many times, but today it struck me because as a believer in Christ God is our role model for how to love. We read of many examples in the Bible of how God loves his people, even though they often disobeyed him and did not follow his laws. God’s nature in the Bible is shown to be forgiving and generous. He sees our faults, but in the end he still loves us anyway. God seems to let his people do what they want, so they have free will to follow their desires. He then watches his people to see what we will do with our free will and free choices. Like a good parent or a good marriage partner, God’s love never wavers even when we make mistakes and make bad choices.

 Day 337 Bible Reading

1 John 4: 2-3

“By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.”

I like this passage from 1 John 4 because I am sometimes reminded that the friends whom I can rely on the most have the same love of Christ that I have. There always seems to be a sympatico between myself and another person who believes in Christ. We speak the same the same language, have the same values, and look at life in similar ways. I do have friends who do not follow Christ, but our friendship does not seem to go as deep as with my friends who do believe in Jesus Christ. Belief in Jesus Christ adds a very deep and profound layer to any friendship and maybe it has something to do with the Bible passage from Matthew 18:20; “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” When there is a friendship between two believers of Christ, he is always there between them.

 Day 336 Bible Reading

1 John 3: 17-18 (ESV)

“But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

I like this passage from 1 John 3 because it says to the believer that actions speak louder than words, and if we have Christ in our heart then our behavior must reflect the presence of God within us. But we must constantly pray to God about actions to make sure they are correct, because we are asked to love in truth. To love in truth means that our actions must also reflect the truth of the situation we are in at every given moment. Because in some cases, to give to someone om need might not be the right thing to do because that person needs to hear the truth. An example of this might be when we don’t want to lend someone money because that money is being used for an addiction. The way to love the person who is an addict is to tell them the truth that the person needs help to get over the addiction and not money to fuel the addiction. So prayer to God for every action must always be a part of our lives, because only God will know that right kind of “love’ an individual person needs.