When Joshua and I were sick, at the same time, we got hooked on a YouTube channel, Anti-chef. The author of this channel has taken it upon himself to cook through Julia Child’s cookbooks. As the time has progressed, he has improved more and more. What is so wild to me is he keeps his mistakes in, he allows the audience to see his foibles as well as his victories. We connect with this. When I see Jamie cook, it makes it less daunting for me. He does not let his mistakes define him. Rather he keeps going, may start from the beginning, it just depends.
He is not defined by his mistakes. Rather, he allows them to be his best teacher. And gosh, that hits me like a ton of bricks. It is so easy for me, when I make a mistake, or quite honestly, sin in the same way multiple times, to feel as though I will never grow out of this. To feel as though I will never grow.
What if I changed the tapes, what if I took God by his word? What would change for me? What if my mistakes, rather than trying to cover them up or spiral downwards with thoughts of never or ever?
John has a word for me today in 1 John 4. It starts with love.
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
1 John 4:7-11 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/1jn.4.7-11.ESV
Let us love one another. I think, check this, John understands where love begins. It begins with God. He loves us. With that knowledge of his love, this is the source by which we live. I begin my day with this truth. God loves me. It’s manifested in me through His Son. His sacrifice. That we would live through him.
This doesn’t begin with ME loving God. It begins with the poured out sacrifice of his Son for our sins. God loves me right here, right now. My love for him is shown in my practice of obedience. Choosing to live in the truth of his love for me and allowing that love to be poured out to those around me. Those I find difficult.
Friends, do you ever look at your day and wonder, how will I make it without sinning? The temptations. Of course, I will sin, that’s not my point. Practicing love and obedience, I choose moment by moment. God so loved the world. God’s ask of me is to pour our that love to others. Even difficult people.
Today, I choose love. I ask the Lord to give me his grace and his mercy. I need it so much.
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