Renovation of the Heart
Transforming the Mind, Part 2 (4|5)
Pages 133-138
• Love
• The Four Movements Toward Perfect Love
• Joy
• Peace
TOGETHER read the devotional and the scripture.
INDIVIDUALLY take notes in your journal on what stands out.
Romans 5:6-8 (NIV) You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
1 John 4:11-21 (NIV) Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 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. We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
TOGETHER pray for one another.
INDIVIDUALLY answer the questions in your journal - process your devotional notes and pray.
Love
”Love is not the same thing as desire, for I may desire something without even wishing it well, much less willing its good. - This is the difference between lust (mere desire) and love. - Desire and love are compatible when desire is ruled by love. - Pride is defined by desire, not by love. It is, above all, the presumption that my desires should be fulfilled and that it is an injustice, and an injury if they are not. Lust and pride all around us inevitably result in a world of fear. For they bring us into a world of little dictators; and the most likely thing is that each person will be used and abused by others, possibly destroyed, or at least not helped and cared for.”
How does pride affect our other “feelings,” say love and peace?
The Four Movements Toward Perfect Love
“We are loved by God who IS love, and in turn we love Him, and others through Him, who in turn love us through Him. Thus is love made perfect or complete. And ‘perfect love casts out fear’ (1 John 4:10). That is, those who live in the fulfillment of God’s redemptive love in human life will no longer experience fear.”
What does this mean? How do the “four movements” of love translate to living without fear? How would you explain this to someone who is an atheist or agnostic?
Joy
“We have placed our hopes in the wrong thing, namely ourselves, and we do not have to do this. It is our option to look to the greatness and goodness of God and what he will do in our lives. - We will be empowered by the spirit of God (to be content in whatever circumstances and rejoice in the Lord always) IF we choose it and fix our minds on the good that God is and will certainly bring to pass.”
How do we turn from putting our hopes in ourselves to the greatness of God? How does this work? Is this possible?
Peace
“Most people carry heavy burdens of care, and usually about the things that are most important in life: what will happen to their loved ones, their finances, health, their physical appearance or what others think of them, the future of society, their standing before God and their eternal destiny. To be at peace with God and others (family, neighbors, and coworkers) is a great attainment and depends on graces far beyond ourselves as well as on our own efforts. That is also true of being at peace with oneself.”
In what way(s) can we put down the “burdens of care” and be at peace with ourselves?
How would you distinguish peace and joy? Can you really have one of them without the other one? Under what conditions?
EXTRA READING:
“The way to Christ is first through humility, second through humility, third through humility. If humility does not precede and accompany and follow every good work we do, if it is not before us to focus on, if it is not beside us to lean upon, if it is not behind us to fence us in, pride will wrench from our hand any good deed we do at the very moment we do it.”
- Augustine of Hippo (354 -430)