From Grace Creates...

I don't normally post any of my online devotions, but this one is too good not to... Going with the full text, rather than a link. Hoping Jon Walker & Grace Creates won't mind my doing so. His devotions touch home for me daily. It's almost uncanny!

Have photos of my first shelter pull yesterday... a beautiful Springer I named Summer, Not sure how "her" story will play out quite yet, but I'll know before the day is out. She is a living example of the way I see beauty in the imperfections...

On to the my original intent for this entry...

Truth: I Am Able to Love

Posted: 23 Jun 2009 12:00 AM PDT

By Jon Walker

But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Luke 6:35 (NIV)

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In faith, I know this to be true:

By God’s grace, I am able to love with abandonment, fully positioned in the center of “other.”

This other-centered love is unconditional; it makes no attempt to force people to do things, or to control them (Romans 12:19). Instead, in faith, I believe God’s love is more powerful than any force in all eternity (1 Corinthians 13:13).

By God’s grace, my love is filled with patience, kindness, encouragement, humility, service, trust, truth, hope, perseverance, and joy, and by covering the wrongs of those I love (1 Corinthians 13:1-13).

By God’s grace, my love is sincere, serves with zeal, and is Spirit-directed. My love is faithful in prayer, generous in invitation, and full of blessings for those who oppose me. I cry with others, and I laugh with others, and I live in harmony, as best I can while loving from the center of God’s love (Romans 12:9-21).

My love proves me to be a child of God because I am kind to the wicked and ungrateful, and I still love, without expecting anything in return (Luke 6:35).

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2009 by Jon Walker.

Writing for permission to use and praying for favor.