Day 6: Believing love...

God loves you with a believing love.

In Philippians 4:13 we find a well-known verse which tells us: for I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

How are you feeling today?  Are you feeling ready to take on the world?  Are you feeling like a fisher of men?  Do you feel like getting out there and loving someone with a massive, sacrificial, generous love, showing them the love of God?

Or do you feel small, insignificant, unable to make a difference?  Do you feel that although you have been trying for a week, that the task of Love 40 days is going to be a little too much?

The truth is, however you feel, that you can do everything through Christ, who gives you strength.

God believes in you.  God has a purpose for you.  He has good works that he prepared in advance for you to do.  Many times we discount ourselves because we know ourselves so well.  But God knows you even better than you know yourself, and he still believes in you.  Not because of anything you bring to the table, but because with his strength, and the gifts he has given you, he can do mighty things.  We just have to choose to let him use us.

So today, be encouraged by God's believing love and know that, as Jesus promised at the end of the Great Commission - the mission he gives to each one of us - (Matthew 28:20), he is with you always, even to the end of the age.
And maybe there is someone in your world who needs to know that somebody believes in them too...

Day 5: Generous love...

God loves you with a generous love.

When we think about the coming celebration of Easter, God's lavish generosity is in every aspect.  In his gift of Jesus, he gave us a model to follow, a truth to set us free, a grace that brings us life, a peace that passes understanding, a forgiveness that removes our sins as far as east is from west.  The list of gifts is endless.  And we did not deserve even one of them.

Here are two verses to consider as you get dressed for the working week today - whether it is back to work wear or your school uniform - that speak of the generosity of your God:

Isaiah 61:10 says: I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God!  For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation and draped me in a robe of righteousness.

Psalm 30:11 says: You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.  You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy.

In each passage we read of clothing that God has given to us - salvation, righteousness, joy.  We have so much for which to be grateful whether physically, materially or spiritually.  Today, as the week begins, why not take some time to think about how God has blessed your life with the generosity of his love, and how he might be calling you to express that generosity as you Love 40 days today?

Please do share anything that God is showing you about his generosity in the comments below.

Day 4: Sacrificial love...

God loves you with a sacrifical love.

In John 15:12-14, we read Jesus saying this: This is my commandment, love each other as I have loved you.  There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command.  We know that Jesus' sacrifice of his life on the cross came directly as a result of the love that God has for each one of us: for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. (John 3:16) and God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. (Romans 5:8)

Jesus gave of himself throughout his life before making the ultimate sacrifice, following his Father's plan and laying down his life - giving up himself that we might be part of God's family.

Lent is traditionally a time when followers of Jesus give something up - or sacrifice something that they enjoy - as they prepare for Easter and remember Jesus' time in the wilderness.  We are choosing to Love 40 days rather than give up a favourite treat or pastime, but loving can be sacrifical too, as the example of Jesus shows us.  What might we need to sacrifice to do what Jesus commands and love each other as he loved us?

 

Is God bringing anything to your mind - a word, a thought, a Bible passage - as you think about the sacrifice that he made for you today?  If it would encourage others, please do share it in the comments below.

 

Don't forget there is no post tomorrow and no name to be drawn as the period of Lent does not include Sundays!

Day 3: Massive love...

God loves you with a massive love.

Today let's spend time thinking about big God's love for you is.  This will probably make your brain hurt, but don't worry because it is supposed to!  In 1 Corinthians 2:9 we read scriptures that say: no eye has seen, no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.  God's love is so big that we cannot comprehend it.

Psalm 139 is another passage that is helpful in helping us to try to understand - and realise that we can't understand - how big God's love for us really is.  Because we often comprehend things through our previous experiences, it is sometimes easy to underestimate God's love because we equate it with the love we receive from other people.

God's love for you is bigger than you can imagine.

Perhaps it would be good for you today to think of some of the biggest things you can.  Maybe even Google images of really big things to remind yourself that God's love for you is bigger than that!  If you are looking at this as a family, you might want to sing the classic children's song Jesus love is very wonderful together, just to remind yourselves...

If you have any verses from the Bible that remind you how big God's love is, please do post a comment below to encourage others today.

Day 2: Give me a reason...

From yesterday's reading, we already know that being loving is a challenge - we don't always want to be kind, it's not always easy to be patient, and sometimes we do want to give up.

So how can we Love 40 days?  Why should we Love 40 days?

There are lots of reasons, as we will see over the coming weeks, but we are going to start with this one, from 1 John 4:19:

We love each other because he loved us first.

Over the next few days we are going to take some time to focus on how God loves us.  As John writes, it is when we understand how loved we are by our Heavenly Father that we are inspired, encouraged and unable to stop loving others.

Try to take time to ask God to open your eyes, ears and hearts to His amazing love today.

Day 1: Love is...

Welcome to Love 40 days!  If you joined us last year, welcome back, and if you're new here we are so pleased you are joining us...

As we get going with Love 40 days, the best place for us to start - again - is taking a look at what the Bible has to say about love.  Probably the best known passage from the Bible about love is 1 Corinthians 13.  You may have heard this read at a wedding, although it is not just intended to describe the love shared between husband and wife.  Paul wrote this letter to the whole church, because this is the love that Jesus was talking about when he commanded us to: love one another (John 13:34).

When we look at the words Paul uses we see that showing love is not just about extravagant displays or the warm and fuzzies, roses, chocolates or feeling on a high.  Love is a challenge...

Today, as we start the Love 40 days journey, why don't you take time to read 1 Corinthians 13 below and pick out some words that might help you as an individual, couple or family to be truly loving?  Why not try putting them somewhere you are going to see them every day to be a constant reminder - and see if God's word changes your heart over the next few weeks?

If I could speak all the languages of earth and angels, but didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.  If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God's secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn't love others, I would be nothing.  If I gave everything I have to thr poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn't love others, I would have gained nothing.

Love is patient and kind.  Love is not boastful, or proud, or rude.  It does not demand its own way.  It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged.  It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out.  Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.  Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless.  But love will last forever! [...]  Three things will last forever - faith, hope, and love - and the greatest of these is love.


Love 40 days 2014 is coming...

We are now counting down the days until Lent begins.  If you would like to join us for the Love 40 days challenge in 2014 we have the packs ready for you to start preparing your name slips and getting your boxes or jars ready to go!  Just email love40days@gmail.com and we will send you everything you need to get started...

This is the place to find everything you need to help you on your Love 40 days journey. You can use the tabs above to discover why we are taking this journey, to figure out how you are going to join in, and to find some ideas to get you started.

From 5th March 2014 you can visit here to find a daily scripture, thought, song or suggestion to challenge you, encourage you and make you think about what we are doing together. There will be a new post every day throughout Lent (meaning you won't find a new post on a Sunday, because Sundays aren't included in Lent) so please do come back and have a read.

But we don't just want you to hear from us - we want to hear from you! Please feel free to use the comments on the daily posts to share your stories and scriptures too. Let us know what God is doing as you step out and seek to "live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ" (Ephesians 5:2). This will encourage all of us and maybe give people new ideas too. And to get you started, if you are planning to Love 40 days, please comment below with your name and let us know you're in! 

Don't forget to come back next week for your first daily inspiration!