Called to Love with Humility    

                       john 17,20-26                

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.   John 13:1

Recommended Reading: John 17:26   “26 And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them..”

COMMENTS:  Loving with humility is demonstrated many different ways, but always puts other’s welfare ahead of self. When something is said or done that hurt another, either thoughtlessly or out of anger or other strong negative emotion, the response should be quick to sincerely apologize reinforced with not only asking for forgiveness but active efforts to correct wrong in all ways possible.  But when hurt is intentional, than a deeper change needs to happen because God’s humbling love is not residing in the soul.   Christ’s example was not intended to overwhelm by setting an example so far above us and beyond our ability to achieve.  His example is intended to show us how to love and where to go for help to find such love and learn how to receive and practice such love.  For Christ to need and access help and fellowship through the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, while living as a human on earth, shows us the importance and need we have to seek and access the Holy Spirit’s help as well.  As we look at how the early Christians lived and demonstrated that love, we discover the difference the Holy Spirit has made since Pentecost in transforming the lives of any and all who simply accept Christ’s redemption and let the Holy Spirit into their lives and souls.  

Have you let the Holy Spirit into your life too?  When you pray, are you aware and open to letting the Holy Spirit guide your prayers and thinking?  The more we study and understand how Christ and what motivated and encouraged Him, and then we begin to understand what needs to change in us.

  The world defined and demonstrates love by selfish sexual indulgences, but Christ demonstrated love by unselfish acts of sacrifice.  During Christ’s last day, he submitted to washing his disciple’s feet.  He was with His disciples almost constantly with the exception of private alone time in prayer with the Father.    The world would have us indulge ourselves in creating a “bucket list” of selfish goals we want to meet before we die and work off that list.  But Christ showed us how to love sacrificially and unselfishly without the goal or expectation of reward or payment from the receiver or even from God.  To love without condition or expectation but simply as a way of loving and showing gratitude and love to God.  Unselfish humble love requires unconditional trust in God to provide for our needs and being grateful for how He chooses to provide and when.  If that provision comes later than we like or not at all this side of the grave, do we trust Him enough to continue to love   anyway knowing God’s ways are best for us and for those we love and will be resolved one day in heaven if not before. 

Let’s remember:

  1. Love each other unconditionally without condition of love in return. Love as a choice out of obedience and love and trust in Christ.  Love because He first loved and continues to love us.  Love simply because He asked us to.
  2. His love was demonstrated to us by His example and life, but His greeted demonstration was by His painful and humiliating death. He chose to die in our place bearing our guilt and shame. Our sins were exposed on Him instead of on us.   If He did nothing else for us that should be sufficient motivation to love as He loved. 
  3. But He not only sacrificed His life as payment and punishment for our sins, but He provides His Holy Spirit to abide with, have fellowship 24x7x365 with us. He also is building and preparing an eternal home for us and new perfect eternal bodies for us to occupy.  But even more
  4. important, the promise of that home being with Him and with our loved ones also redeemed for eternity.
  5. Can you imagine the reunion with those who went home before us? Can you imagine fellowshipping and sharing with all the saints of old from our own families and from history and from scripture?   We will enjoy all that and far more.  If that isn’t enough motivation and incentive to strive to live a Christ-like life and surrender to His helping hands, than I don’t know what will be sufficient incentive.

There are many grand ways to demonstrate love. But none is more powerful than the humility of a willing servant.

The surest mark of true conversion is humility.  J. C. Ryle

 

If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 368 blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present.

You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily.  My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to   explore and use my devotional blog materials.

My hope and prayer are, my blog and devotional materials will become a source of encouragement and tools in ministry for you.

 

Published by donsdevotions

Unknown's avatar

Don McDaniel - Who am I? Hello everyone and welcome to my devotional journal blog. In order to get acquainted and help you get to know me a bit better before considering following my blog, let me give you some background. I am a 74-year-old male and a retired engineer. I worked for a major supplier of underground mining equipment for nearly 40 years before retiring in 2012. Arlene and I have been happily married since April 1978 and have two grown – married children, one granddaughter and 2 step grandsons. I joined the local United Methodist church at age 12 after accepting Christ as my Savior at age 10 during revival services in that same church in 1961, so I have been a “Born Again” Christian all my teen years and adult life. Christ has helped and guided me all that time. He guided me in choosing my wife and life’s career. My life journey has included regrets and failures, but God has picked me up and protected and spared me from life threatening consequences and dangers more times than I can recall or count. But many I do recall and encourage and motivate me to trust and follow Christ with more passion than ever. Christmas 2011 our daughter gave Arlene and I each a devotional journal. Journals were books with devotion for each day and space to give personal impressions and thoughts related to each devotion. Her desire was to have a lasting legacy she could refer back to and share with her children and grandchildren especially after we are gone. I was touched by that gesture. My parents and Arlene’s were devout Christians, so we would have greatly treasured having that from them, so we felt a sense of urgency to honor her request. I finished my journal first and returned it to our daughter the following Christmas. I’m glad I did it then because Parkinson’s has caused my hand writing to deteriorate since then. The exercise was such a blessing for me. Discipline of keeping journal helped me gain a deeper walk with Christ and greater discipline in honoring my time of prayer and devotion with Him each day. So, I decided to continue the practice but since I could not find a paper journal I liked, I decided to create my own. I had already been receiving electronic devotions by email every day from several sources, my favorite being “Turning Point” from Dr. David Jeremiah. What I decided to do was to include devotional scripture but add my own thoughts and comments only so there would be no issue of copyright infringement. Creating and maintaining journal by computer also addressed my deteriorating handwriting ability. I started an electronic devotion journal January 1, 2013 and have been faithful to that practice every day since. I prayed about method and level of distribution. My initial intent was to only share it with my two children by email, but quickly discovered others in my family, my church, and friends from work (both retired and still working) who knew me and wanted to be included in distribution when they learned what I was doing. I now distribute by email my daily journal at the beginning of each month to over 150 friends and relatives. God has richly blessed and encouraged me. I am concerned with the state of our church and nation, and world for that matter, believing we are living in the end times the prophets of old and Christ have talked about in scripture, so time is short. I desire to be true to my Savior and a witness to help others come to a saving knowledge of Him and equipped to share His Good News too. If my journal can encourage and help others, I believe God wants me to share it. I struggled, for a time at first, because I know many others keep similar journals but only for their own edification and do not want to share them because they are private. However, Christ has stirred my heart to share it as a witness tool. Our son and daughter have a long-time friend who grew up with them who we also befriended nearly 25 years ago. He had a lot of family problems, so would gravitate to our family as a refuge and eventually thought of us as his adopted parents and he as our adopted son. We lost contact with him for some time when he grew up and left home. He traveled around the U.S. and eventually ended up in Ukraine where he resided for next 10 years. He had to return to the US to renew his visa and took opportunity to recommend I begin a blog of my devotions and helped me set it up. He is also an active blogger and has been an email subscriber to my journal for several months, so he has been suggesting I expand my distribution by starting a blog to get broader exposure. After reflection and prayer, I concluded God was in this, so he is helping me set up my blog site. This brief autobiography is my first entry. He returned to Ukraine, then resided there until circumstanced made him decide to move back to US with his young son. This biography was my first post February 29, 2016 . I have published 600 posts from 2016-2023 automatically sent to all my Facebook friends, published on WordPress to be accessible to anyone curious or seeking a deeper walk with God. I decided to take a sebatical to prepare for a new chapter. In 2014 I was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease which affects patient ability to walk, drive, do physical work, and eventually talk. By mid 2023 it became evident our home for last 42 years (previously owned by my parents for previous 44 years and by my mother's grandparents for 39 years before that) would eventually not meet my needs so we decided to sell it and move into 1st floor of a duplex we also owned that was the town school from 1855-1913. Likewise, the property was requiring more maintenance that I was no longer able to keep up with. 2023 involved selling our home and moving into apartment next door and then in early 2025 an opportunity to move closer to our daughter and granddaughter in Kentucky which was completed in May 2025. For a number of months I have been seeking direction seeking God's direction and timing to return to blogging as my journey with Parkinson's continues to unfold with God's guiding hand in mine. I hope and pray my devotions will continue to be a blessing for you. God certainly has become closer and more real to me since started this blog in 2016. I have spent time with Him studying scripture and praying and listening and writing this journal. I will continue seeking God’s help and will welcome your input to make this site as meaningful as I can and true to God, who is motivating me to create and maintain it. I will also welcome input in order to make format more meaningful going forward. Don & Arlene McDaniel In His Service, Email: mcdanieldonald769@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Don1951 If you wish, you can access my blog at “https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com“. There you will find 600+ blog posts I have made plus a link to my devotional journal material archives from 2013 to present (https://donsdevotions.wordpress.com/2016/03/02/link-to-dons-devotional-journal-entries-2013/ ) You may also access my Facebook page and request to be my friend and automatically receive my daily journal publications daily. My Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/Dondevotionals/ Many thanks to a pastor and dear brother in Christ in Nepal who set up the above Facebook page to help and encourage and give opportunity for more to explore and use my devotional blog materials.

Leave a comment