Following Christ: God Wants You Devo

April 15th, 2018

Devotional

“Following Christ: God Wants You” - Eph 5: 1-2 

Keep the sermon topic and Biblical text preaching all week by following Pastor Michelle on twitter @tinypastor and reading her sermon blog www.revmichelle.blogspot.com

Monday: “Imitators” - Eph 5: 1 and 1 Thes 1:6

  In both Ephesians Chapter 5 and 1 Thessalonians, Chapter 1, we find instructions to become imitators of Christ. Webster’s Dictionary defines imitator as following the example or model of. To mimic. To closely reproduce. 

   Becoming an imitator has gotten a bad rap over the years in our culture, as we hear things like, if we are imitating others then we aren’t being ourselves. But I think back to my nieces and nephews, who are all under the age of three. When they were about one and a half, their vocabularies and mannerisms exploded. Why? Because they imitated their parents and other people who cared about them. They learned who they were, by imitating others.

So it is with us and Christ. We don’t imitate Christ in order to lose ourselves. We imitate Christ in order to more fully become who God has created and called us to be. By following the example that Christ laid out for us, we learn to share the love of Christ that has transformed us with others, allowing them to be on this journey with God as well. 

  What does it mean for you to be an imitator of Christ?

Do you find imitating Christ to be hard or easy? Why? 

Prayer: Jesus, we thank you for the call and invitation upon our lives to be imitators of you. May we grow in grace, truth, and love, as we fall more deeply in love with you through such imitation. Use us, we pray, to share this love and mercy with others. Amen. 

Tuesday: “Imitators of Me” - 1 Cor 11:1

The Apostle Paul, in his letters to churches who were sometimes struggling such as the Church in Corinth, knew that sometimes it is hard to be an imitator of Jesus. It is hard for us to exactly know what Jesus would do or say. We need examples with flesh on them who we can learn from. 

That is one of the reasons we are given the gift of the body of Christ. While humans, including Paul, are flawed, they also give us examples of what it looks like for one human being to share the love of Christ with another human being. Therefore, Paul instructed those in the church in Corinth to also be imitators of him, as he is an imitator of Christ.

Sometimes being an imitator of another human being can be dangerous. Because we don’t always get it right. We don’t always have the mind of Christ. We aren’t just to imitate anyone in the Church, but rather those who we know are seeking to imitate Christ - those mature believers who can share their wisdom with others, and who can help us grow on our faith walk. 

Who are some of the people in your life who taught you to imitate the love of Christ? 

Prayer: Lord, we thank you that you do not send us on this faith journey alone, but rather invite elders with wisdom to accompany us and teach us as they imitate you. Help us to find mentors who can share such love with us, and help us grow more deeply in love with you, Lord Jesus. Amen. 

Wednesday: “Leaving You an Example” - 1 Peter 2:21

If you had to sum up the cross what words would you use? I think most of us would associate salvation with the cross, but more me, I see deep and abiding love on the cross. I sew, and one of the things I made when I was just learning how to put things together was a cross stitch pillow for my Gram that said “It wasn’t nails that held Christ to the cross, it was love.”

  It was out of love for us, that Jesus gave himself, even when we were yet sinners. It was sacrificial love that was shown on the cross. And it is such love that Christ left as an example for us to share with others. 

How do you share the love of Jesus with others?

What does the love of Christ mean to you?

Prayer: Lord, we cannot begin to express our gratitude for that which you have done for us, and for the saving love that you gave your life for on the cross. Help us not to to keep such love to ourselves. May we live into your example, so that the message and ministry of your kingdom may be proclaimed. Amen. 

Thursday: “In the Image of God” - Gen 1:27

I don’t do very well when I see people being mistreated. It started young, in elementary school, where I would often be vocal on behalf of people I thought were being left out or not treated kindly. The first time I remember standing up for someone was maybe when I was five and my brothers were three. One of my brothers was not being heard, or perhaps not being listened to. So I stopped everything to make sure that his voice was recognized.

If you asked me why I did those things when I was younger, I probably couldn’t have told you. But as I have gotten older, and think more about my actions, I realize that I value people. More specifically, I value people because they bear the image of God. Because they are made in the divine image. Because God says that they are special. 

It is not just those who look like you or I or believe what you and I believe whom God loves. Whom God created. Whom God cares about. It is everyone. We are to love folks as God loves them, and share with them the love of Jesus.

What do you think it means that people were created in the image of God?

Prayer: Lord, we come today to repent. To repent that sometimes we treat people as you would not want them to be treated. We treat people like some are more worthy than others. That some are more loved by others. Forgive us, Lord, and help us to see people as you see them and to love as you love. Amen. 

Friday: “Live in Love” - Eph 5:2

Love is sometimes a tricky word. We say that we love a good book. Or love our pets. Or love ice cream in the same breath that we say that we love God. Are all loves equal? When Ephesians tells us to live in love, I think it was talking about the two deepest types of love that we have - love for our God and love for our neighbors. 

  But even those these are the two deepest types of love in our human lives, that does not mean that it is always easy. Sometimes people are simply difficult to love. And some days we choose to live in ways that don’t seem to reflect our love of God. Yet, love is a choice. A choice we are invited to make every day. A choice to center our lives in the love of our Savior.

What would it look like in the coming week if we would pray each and every day that God help us to choose to love. To choose to love God with all we have and all we are. To choose to love our neighbor as Christ would love them. How could our world change? How could we change?

  What does it look like for you to live in love?

Prayer: Lord, we ask for your strength and wisdom in the coming days to choose love. Not just to choose to use the word love, which can be so confusing in our world, but to choose to love as you loved us. Send us out to be agents of such transformative love in the world, we pray. Amen. 

Saturday: Preparing for the Word

You are invited to read and pray this week’s text and topic: “Following Christ: God Sized Visions and Dreams” - John 13: 34-35 

Family Activity: Play an imitation game, such as follow the leader. Why do we imitate other people in the game? How is this similar or different from imitating Christ in our lives?