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Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. — 1 John 3:18 Thoughts on Today's Verse... "Talk is cheap!" "You can tell me with your words all you want, but I won't believe it until I see it in your actions." "It's time to put your life where your mouth is." There are many slogans, but let's get down to the nitty-gritty and really live and love in truth. In a world where barter has replaced sacrificial, steadfast love, and as lust has become the modern definition of love, let's go against the cultural grain and truly love with our words and actions. Genuine love must be like God's love. It must involve emotion, commitment, and action. This is love in actions and in truth! Video Commentary... ToGather Worship Guide | More ToGather Videos My Prayer... Sacrificial Father, I confess to you that at times I am selfish. Other times, my intentions are good, but my follow-through and faithfulness are l...

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. — 1 John 4:9 Thoughts on Today's Verse... Love is an action. The Bible stresses this truth again and again. Love must not only be spoken and felt, but it must also be demonstrated in daily life. The beginning of love is God. He showed his love for us in Jesus so we could know our incredible value to him. The price of our adoption was the emptying of heaven of its greatest treasure, God the Son, who is our Savior, and God's greatest demonstration of love. Because love is not genuine until it is both felt and acted on. "This is how God showed his love among us..." He sent Jesus! My Prayer... Loving Father, thank you for adopting me into your family. I can never thank you enough or ever repay you for your kindness, but please receive the service of my life as my ongoing thanksgiving for your grace and as my small way of trying to share the love you have ...

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. — Matthew 22:37-39 Thoughts on Today's Verse... Some things are just not complicated to understand. However, that doesn't mean putting them into practice is easy for me. Jesus was clear in what he said. Living for God can be boiled down to two principles: Loving God with everything I am and have. Loving others and treating them as I would like to be treated. Those principles are certainly not too hard to understand. It's the living of them that is our challenge. So, let's not just understand these two principles of love; let's live them out in our daily lives: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ... Love your neighbor as yourself. My Prayer... Dear Father, the one true and living God, please accept the work of my hands, the...

We love because he first loved us. — 1 John 4:19 Thoughts on Today's Verse... It's all very simple. God is love ( 1 John 4:7-8 ). He is love's origin, example, and architect. I love because God loved me first. I know how to love because he has demonstrated it in Jesus. I can love because he made me in his likeness and to share his character, and because God pours his love into my heart through the Holy Spirit ( Romans 5:5 ). He is the fountain, the motivation, and the pinnacle of love. I love because God loves - first, last, and always. My Prayer... God of comfort, God of love, thank you for comforting me with your love. Just as a child learns from parents how to do so many things, I want to learn to love as you do: sacrificially, selflessly, and submissively so that others may know that they do not have to earn your love, only receive it and share it with others. In the name of Jesus, your perfect example of love, I pray. Amen. The Thoughts and Prayer on Today's Verse ...

Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. — Ephesians 2:4-5 Thoughts on Today's Verse... God is rich in mercy and generous with grace! Isn't that wonderful for us? I don't know about you, but I sure know I have failures, shortcomings, sins, and transgressions. Without God’s mercy, I would be lost in my sins ( Romans 3:23-25 ). Without his grace, I would be cut off from the life God longs for me to have ( Romans 5:6-11 ). God is rich in mercy and generous with grace! He acted on our behalf when he sent Jesus to show us his love ( 1 John 4:9-10 ). Now, because of his rich mercy and generous grace, we are dead to that old sinful self, and our lives are now tied to Jesus' glorious future ( Colossians 2:12 , 3:1-4 ). "God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ" ! My Prayer... Father of all grace and mercy, thank you. Thank you fo...

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. — 1 John 4:18 Thoughts on Today's Verse... What is there to fear since nothing can separate us from the love God has for us in Christ Jesus? ( Romans 8:38-39 ) What is there to fear since God has poured his Spirit into our hearts to transform, strengthen, and make us holy? ( 2 Corinthians 3:18 ; Galatians 5:22-23 ; 1 Corinthians 6:11 ) What is there to fear since God sent his Son to die to redeem us and present us to God as holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation" ? ( Colossians 1:21-22 ) As the apostle Paul declared: What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all - how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ( Romans 8:32 ) We are God's children. He loves us. His love for us i...