Day 7: Agape, Love That Lays Down Its Life
Bible passage: John 15:13; 1 Peter 3:18
Love at the Cross
Today is Thursday 14th of April 2022. Welcome to Day 7, the final day of our 7 Days of Prayer and Fasting. Tomorrow is Good Friday. It is right that we finish this week on love at the place where love is shown most clearly.
Yesterday we saw that agape gives without conditions. Today we see how far that giving goes. Jesus said, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13 (NLT) The next day, He did it.
What Love Gave
The Father Gave His Son
Any parent would sooner suffer than watch their child suffer. Yet God, who loves more deeply than any parent, gave His one and only Son so that we would not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). He did not hold back even His own Son but gave Him up for us all (Romans 8:32).
The Son Gave Himself
Jesus was not a victim. He who was with God in the beginning, and who is God, became one of us so that He could die in our place. Nobody took His life from Him. He laid it down willingly.
None of us could have done it for one another, because all of us have sinned. Only the sinless One could carry the sin of the world. Peter writes that Christ suffered for our sins once for all time. He never sinned, but He died for sinners to bring us safely home to God (1 Peter 3:18).
The Way Was Opened
Our sin had separated us from a holy God. At the cross Jesus took that sin on Himself, and when He died the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom (Mark 15:38). We who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13). Now we can come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16).
Our Response
Take Up Your Cross
Love like that calls for an answer. Jesus said that anyone who wants to be His disciple must give up their own way, take up their cross daily and follow Him (Luke 9:23). We are not paying Him back. We never could. We are giving ourselves to the One who gave Himself for us.
Thank Him. Before you ask for anything today, spend time simply thanking Jesus for the cross.
Surrender. What is He asking you to lay down? A habit, a grudge, a plan, your comfort?
Serve. Sacrificial love costs something. Give your time, your money or your attention to someone this Easter.
Prayer Points for Today
Thank God for the gift of His Son, given to save us from our sins.
Thank Jesus that He was willing to die for you.
Pray that we would live lives worthy of that love and sacrifice.
Pray that we would take up our cross every day and follow Him.
You Did It
Well done for completing these seven days. Give God the glory for what He has done in you, and do not go back to where you were. Come and worship with us this Easter as we remember His death and celebrate His resurrection.
Prayer for Today:
Lord Jesus, thank You for the cross. Thank You that You loved me and gave Yourself for me. I can never repay You, but I give You my life. Show me what to lay down, and give me grace to take up my cross and follow You today and every day. Let my life tell others of Your love. Amen.
Keep going
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