Today's Scripture: 1 Peter 1:3-9
"Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory."
Paris and Helen of Troy. Cleopatra and Mark Antony. Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII. Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII. Lancelot and Guinevere. Romeo and Juliet. Bonnie and Clyde.
These are just a few of the most famous, or at least most well-known, love stories throughout history. While some are fictional, others are real, but they all have at least one thing in common.
They involve two people who can see each other, hold hands, spend time together. They can do all the things that people in love do. And, they find joy in each other's company.
Your love for Jesus is much like that, with one major difference. You can't actually see Jesus.
Peter points that out in today's passage. Even though you have not seen him, you love him. Despite that fact that you never actually laid eyes on the physical person of Jesus, you love him.
That tops any love story in history that you might name as the greatest love story of all time. And, it's second only to the love that God has for you.
Like any love story, the love you have for Jesus leads to a real and powerful joy. If the love that God has for us and the love we have for him is the greatest love, then it follows that the joy we experience from that is the greatest joy.
Peter says it is a "joy inexpressible." It can be experienced but not expressed in words. We can find some measure of joy in family, or things, or various activities, but the truest, purest joy comes from your love for God.
Which begs the question – if this pure joy is missing or diminished in your life, then what's the fix? Reset your love for God and rediscover the joy that can't be adequately expressed in words.
Think about it …
- How might you inject the pure joy of a love for God into the life of someone else?
