TSP DAILY DEVOTIONAL
HAVE YOU GOT SELF-LOVE?
18th February 2020
Dr. Phil Ransom-Bello
KEY SCRIPTURE/MEMORY VERSE:2 Corinthians 5:14,15(TPT)
For it is Christ’s love that fuels our passion and motivates us, because we are absolutely convinced that he has given his life for all of us. This means all died with him, so that those who live should no longer live self-absorbed lives but lives that are poured out for him—the one who died for us and now lives again.
Yesterday, we tried to bring home the idea that loving like God as a believer is not impossible because the fact that you’ve been loved by God enables you to dispense love.
You see, if you understand first of all, that the nature of love is something that you already are by virtue of what Jesus did on the cross, you will not see yourself as trying to work at being a loving person. You are already a loving person.
If you are a woman, you already are a woman or as a man, you already are a man. It’s your nature. You don’t need a special preparation or select days to be a woman or a man.
Dear believer, don’t stay in the box of preconceived ideas of where your love begins and ends or how much you can love.
No, don’t stay there. Expand your mind to take on the possibilities of how much more you can love. You have to tell yourself, “I will love differently.”
Whether or not, there’s a precedence for love in that manner.
Let love be a driving force in your heart. Verse 14 of our text today says- “The love of God compels us.”
This means no other emotion is natural to you again. Love has become your default.
Listen, a primary character of Love is the profession of it. The proof of love received is that you profess it, you give it out. It’s not private.
In essence, you are no longer self-absorbed. You are now Love-absorbed.
That’s why the notion of self-love that the world tries to sell is alien and unnatural to us. The question is- Why does there need to be self?
Notice that when the Bible talks about self, it talks about dying or being dead to self.
If you think about it, the idea of self-love points to self as the source of the love but if you know your source is Christ, then you don’t need to try or contend to get love for yourself because Christ’s love already covers you. And when you are secure in that love, you aren’t really thinking about ‘yourself’ in that sense.
So it shifts the focus from loving as “I love myself” to loving as Christ has called us to love. (John 13:34,35 NIV)
What have you got?
Did you receive Love or Self -Love?
Give what you’ve got.
REFLECTION
Do I really know that my default has changed? When I love, what is my driving force- Love or Self?
DECLARATION
-I am born of God.
-Christ is the source of my love.
-I have received the capacity to love as He does. There is no limit to this capacity.
-I am Love-absorbed not Self-absorbed. Self-love is not my narrative. Instead, my motto is Christ-love.
-The love I dispense is not influenced by time or place or recipient. It’s Love all the time!
-The love of Christ is both my driving force and my default emotion.
-I love sincerely and well.
-Today, testimonies abound for me because the Gospel works. Hallelujah!
HEARING BY THE WORD
(Recommended Listening)
Listen to LOVE ~ The Series 2 >> Dr. Phil by The StandPoint Church on #SoundCloud
