Becoming Like Jesus: Scripture MemorizationSample

The Way We Love

Pray…

Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus as the walking, talking demonstration of your love and grace. Jesus, thank you for showing us what it looks like to have a right relationship with God. Holy Spirit, help me live like Jesus by loving the people around me today. Help me see like you see. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Read…

34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35 NIV

Consider…

In these verses, Jesus gives us the single, most significant identifying marker of His followers. He says the world will know we are His by the way we love each other.

But it’s not an arbitrary standard of love, like we are mostly nice to people most of the time. No, Jesus clarified the kind of love that sets us apart as His. We are to love people the same way that Jesus has loved us.

How did Jesus love us? How has Jesus loved you?

Take some time today to journal about Jesus’ love and how you have seen it in your life. Then ask yourself what it would look like to love others that same, sacrificial way.

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

The next phrase to meditate on is, “...must deny themselves…” As you practice the memory verse today, think about what it means and looks like to deny yourself. The beautiful thing is, we have an example. Jesus is not asking us to do something He was unwilling to do Himself. He led the way in denying Himself, to the point of not using His deity to His own advantage and laying down His life for the sake of the world.

Listen…

Set your timer for 5 minutes.

Prepare yourself to listen by looking at what you wrote in your journal about Jesus’ love for you.

Thank Him for His love and ask Him to reveal His love in a new way today.

When you get distracted, come back to Jesus by going back through Luke 9:23-24 and thinking about how Jesus denied Himself, died on the cross, and rose again to bring us back to God.