Weekly Overview:

1 Corinthians 13:13 says, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” The greatest of all aspects of the Christian life is love. Love is to be at the foundation of all we do, all we are, and all we hold on to. If we focus on love and allow the Holy Spirit to strip everything else away, what will be left is a life of blessed simplicity rooted in face-to-face relationship with our heavenly Father. As we spend time this week looking at the simplicity of love, I pray that all the weighty, frivolous things of the world that rob you of an abundant life fall away in light of the glorious goodness of God’s unconditional and wholly available love for you.

Scripture:

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.” Romans 8:1-3

Worship:

Freedom by Bethel Music featuring William Matthews

Devotional:

What does it look like to be totally free in Christ Jesus? What does it look like to live in the world, but be free from the constraints, demands, burdens, and stresses of living for the world? Scripture proclaims to us a life more abundant, purposeful, and free than what I am now experiencing. The Holy Spirit quietly but clearly beckons me to choose him throughout my day that I might know what it is to live in constant communion with him. God clearly has a plan for us far greater than anything we have yet experienced. And he longs for today to be a day marked by the freedom of life that only comes through a transformational encounter with his presence, truth, and love.

God’s love has set us free from everything that would entangle us to this world. His love sets us free emotionally, spiritually, and practically. His love broke the chains of sin and depravity as Jesus breathed his last breath on the cross. His love broke through to earth as he tore the veil from top to bottom signifying the availability of his presence for all. His love broke through in each of our lives as we said yes to crowning him King and accepted his free gift of eternal relationship with him. And his love breaks through every morning as surely as the sun rises, declaring to us the availability of a day filled with his nearness and love.

Scripture says in Romans 7:4, “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.” And in Galatians 5:22-23, Scripture says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” God longs for our lives to be marked by the presence of the Holy Spirit. He longs for us to bear his fruit that we might enjoy all that restored relationship with him affords us.

Romans 8:1-3 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.” God’s love has set us free from “the law of sin and death” that we might live by the law of “the Spirit of life.” His love has made a way for us to be fully known and fully loved. But the choice is still ours today. Will we submit ourselves to this new law marked by the fruit of his presence, or will we choose to resubmit ourselves to the law of this world as if the death of Christ was for nothing? Choose abundant life today by opening your heart and experiencing the nearness of the Holy Spirit.

Guided Prayer:

Extended Reading: Galatians 5