Love is a word heard frequently today. "I love that car!" "I love you!" "God loves me!" All different uses of the word. At Lent, it is common to recall the love that Jesus Christ has for all persons in the world and how those who are asking forgiveness are touched with that love. In fact, without that love, it would be difficult to ask for forgiveness---one could not be assured that forgiveness would follow.
In "Jesus Christ in Ephesians" by Ron James, the author believes that Christ's life reaches out to the human heart and to the world with love through the scripture of Ephesians. It is a compassion which Paul catches in its essence, the writer believes. Paul writes with tenderness and caring as he urges the infusion of Christ's beliefs into marriage, family and households of the time.
Grace comes to those who love Jesus in sincerity---God responds to that sincerity with the grace of love and forgiveness. If we are trying to do right, and love Christ with sincerity. . .grace comes. What an enormous love God has for the people in the world. All one has to do is try. What a love this is.
Prayer: Help us to remember that no matter what our sins, it is the sincerity of our love for Christ, which will lead us eventually to your grace. In Lent and all year, help us to be sincere in love for you.
Printed with permission of Robert Thompson from the 2002 Lenten Devotional
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