For Reading and Meditation:      John 12:20-33The love for God that burns in our hearts must never be seen as the fruit of our labor, as if it is something we manufacture. Seeing the love of God for us, our own heart responds with love. We give love for love. We cannot help it. Let's be done with the idea that love for God is something we work at. It issues forth in good works, of course, but it begins in contemplation of how much we are loved. I often tell my students that they cannot love until they have been loved. By this I mean that love is a response. Our souls must receive love before they can give out love. Those who did not receive much love from their parents complain at this stage: "I can't love God because my soul was never properly prepared to love; my parents didn't love me." That is a problem I agree, but it must never be seen as an insoluble problem. No one who stands at Calvary and sees God dying for them on that tree can ever argue that because they were not loved by their parents they cannot now receive God's love. If they really believe that, then they are saying that God's love is balked by the adverse influence of human conditioning. God's love will only flow into us if we let it, and if we really want it. To desire it is like the touch of the hand on a spring blind; the blind is released and the sunlight flows in. Just to want His love is enough; He will do the rest.O God, forgive me if I have used excuses to barricade my heart against Your love. I gaze once more on Calvary and open my heart to allow its mighty magnetism to draw my soul toward You in a way it has never been drawn before. In Jesus' Name. Amen.<div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>2 Thessalonians 3:1-5</li><li>Jude 1:21</li><li>Ephesians 3:17-19</li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>What was Paul's desire for the Thessalonians?</li><li>What was Paul's prayer for the Ephesians?</li></ul></div></div>

Let a little light into your soul every day with this wonderful devotional from English pastor Selwyn Hughes.

Every Day Light with Selwyn Hughes

"But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself." (v. 32)

<blockquote>
 God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever" (Ps. 73.26).
</blockquote>Finally, when all else fails us, we find that God is enough. That which we most need in life - love, unfailing love - is abundantly and satisfyingly ours in the Lord Jesus. But we so often seek it elsewhere."Nothing can be sweeter than the repose in divine love when it is known and the heart is free to rest in it. The soul may have a long journey to reach it experientially; there may be many needs and exercises to be met and removed on the way; self and the world will have to be learned; but the great end of all our exercises - and, I may add, of all our deliverances - is that we rest in the thoughts of divine love, and that love becomes in a very real way the portion of our hearts. If our hearts are not in the circle of divine love they have really got nothing, for as Christians we have no portion on earth. Thank God! it is a blessed and satisfying portion." -C.A.C."There is no reserve in God's love; He has given the best in heaven for the worst on earth, and in this way has rebuked distrust and established confidence, so that the works of the devil' might be undone in our hearts. If we only want what God gives us we shall be perfectly happy. Nothing is of real value to us that we cannot take from our Father's hand and thank Him for.""And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God" (<a id="verse_1632879489157184" href="https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/2-Thessalonians/3/5">2 Thess. 3:5</a>).

A 365 day devotional that will help you in your Christian growth and walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.  This devotional is a collection of quotes from some of the best authors in the realm of Christian growth that has been organized by Miles J Stanford.  This devotional study is divided into 12 sections each containing 31 daily portions.

None but the Hungry Heart

 Satisfying Portion 

<blockquote>
The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God" (<a id="verse_1632877257669704" href="https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/2-Thessalonians/3/5">2 Thess. 3:5</a>).
</blockquote>Between the activity of the old man and the accusations of Satan, we often find it very difficult to believe and understand that God is lovingly and legally on our side, both now and forever."One of the great secrets of growth is the looking upon the Lord Jesus as gracious. How strengthening it is, to know that He is at this moment feeling and exercising the same love and grace towards me as when He died upon the Cross for me." -J.N.D."I have got away from grace if I have the slightest doubt about God's love for me. I shall then be saying, I am not happy, because I am not what I should like to be. But, dear friend, this is not the question: the real question is, whether God is what we shall like Him to be, whether the Lord Jesus is all we could wish."If the consciousness of what we are in ourselves, has any other effect than, while it humbles us, to increase our adoration of what our Father is, we are off the ground of pure grace. The immediate effect of such consciousness should be to make our hearts reach out to God and to His grace as abounding over all.""May our hearts get such a lesson in the love of the Father, that, instead of being depressed by trying circumstances, or elated by what are called providential interpositions, we may know that we are the objects of this wonderful love, and are being educated into it by the only One who knew it in all its power as He walked here below through this wilderness world." -J.B.S."To know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge" (<a id="verse_1632877257528497" href="https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/Ephesians/3/19">Eph. 3:19</a>).

 Love’s Eternality 

5 May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.

May the Lord direct your hearts<cr>1</cr> into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.

2 Thessalonians 3:5

 5 May the Lord direct your hearts   into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.

From Wikipedia: 

The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society). The NIV was published to meet the need for a modern translation done by Bible scholars using the earliest, highest quality manuscripts available. Of equal importance was that the Bible be expressed in broadly understood modern English.

The NIV is published by Zondervan in the United States and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK. The NIV was updated in 1984 and 2011 and has become one of the most popular and best-selling modern translations.

OT: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; additional sources;
NT: UBS Greek New Testament; Novum Testamentum Graece; additional sources;

New International Version

 May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.

May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.

 May the Lord direct your hearts   into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.

Bible Verse of the Day

April 16, 2023

2 Thessalonians 3:5 NIV

Verse by Verse Bible Study

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