Becoming Like Jesus: Scripture MemorizationSample

Becoming Like Jesus

Pray…

Father in heaven, thank you for loving me. Thank you for sending Jesus to show me your love. Jesus, help me continue to learn how to show your love to others. Thank you for your joy that is in me and your Holy Spirit guiding me. I trust you. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Read…

9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. John 15:9-13 NIV

Consider…

When we remain in Jesus, we begin to live like He lived. We act in accordance with Him and we start to love like He loves.

Yesterday we talked about what it means to remain in Jesus. Today, we get to see how. How do we remain? The answer is right there in the Scripture: we obey His commands.

And what is His command? That we love others the same way Jesus has loved us.

Jesus’ command isn’t one that places a heavy burden on us or sucks the joy out of life—it’s the exact opposite. Jesus tells us that obeying this command, and thereby remaining in His love, actually leads to complete joy!

What stands out to you in this passage? What do you think it means to have complete joy? How does remaining in Jesus’ love lead to that?

Practice…

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.” Luke 9:23-24 NIV

“Whoever wants to save their life will lose it…” As we continue to break down this week’s memory verse to help us internalize the truth of Jesus’ words, we get to this phrase.

What do you think Jesus is saying? Consider the idea that when our primary goal is self-preservation, we spend a lot of time worrying about what we do and don’t have. And we end up wasting our life. But when our primary goal is following Jesus’ example of self-sacrifice, we find that we can trust our heavenly Father to take care of everything else.

Listen…

Set your timer for 5 minutes.

Prepare your heart to hear from God by letting Him know all the things you may be worrying about. As those thoughts and feelings rise to the surface, don’t filter them. Give them all to Jesus.

When you come to a point of stillness, ask God to speak to you and fill you with confident trust in Him.

When you get distracted, refocus by coming back to this week’s memory verse. Let it get even deeper down inside of you today.