Choose Love - Verse 6

The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Romans 5.5,6

Choose to Receive
To choose love is not simply to choose to give, it is to choose to receive. Love flows, love is dynamic. It is given as it is received. It is, more than anything, a gift of God to us, through Christ and through his Holy Spirit.

Stop and Think

How easy do you find it to receive love from others? Is this reflected in how easy you find it to give love?
In what ways is God’s love offered to you through the death of Christ and the life of the Spirit?

Choose to Act

Take time to thank God for his gift of love to you and to receive it afresh.
Choose to receive love from others as it is offered to you today.

Choose Love - Verse 5

Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12.20,21

Choose to Win
To choose love is to choose to win; not victory over others, but the defeat of evil, anger and hatred. To choose love is, as it was for Jesus, to choose to overcome.

Stop and Think

In what ways in your life has love proved to be the way of victory?
What might it mean for you to overcome evil with good?

Choose to Act

Thank God for the victory of love in your life, for the joy and hope and freedom that it has brought to you.
Choose today the way of generous, forgiving love; choose a little act of goodness which subverts anger, hate and selfishness

Choose Love - Verse 4

Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Romans 12.15

Choose Compassion
Love is expressed through our deeds and our words, it is love in action. But love begins in our hearts, hearts that are not always seeking to take but are free to give - free to rejoice with others’ joy and free to weep with others’ sorrow.

Stop and Think

What makes it hard to rejoice or to weep with others?
What frees us to offer the compassion that flows from a heart of love?

Choose to Act

Take time today to reflect on God’s unconditional compassionate love for you.
Choose today to let yourself be genuinely happy in others’ joy and to be truly sad in others’ grief.

Choose Love - Verse 3

Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. Romans 12.14

Choose Blessing
To choose love is to choose to bless all people, especially those who make life difficult for us, or who cause us pain and hurt. There is a hard edge to love, a radical unexpected aspect that responds with generous bridge building actions and words.

Stop and Think
Who are those who ‘persecute’ you? How easy is it to respond by ‘cursing’ them? What might it mean for you to ‘bless’ them?

Choose to Act
Pray for those who are persecuted and who struggle to respond in love. Choose, in your words and your deeds, to bless someone today; someone you find hard to love.

Choose Love - Verse 2

Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister.Matthew20.25,26

Choose Service
A Minister, whether in Church or Government, is invariably seen to be in a place of authority and status. Jesus reminds us that the word means one who serves, the true characteristic of leadership and greatness.

Stop and Think

What qualities, in your experience, make someone great? Does readiness to serve play a part?
How in your life can you serve other people?

Choose to Act

Thank God for those who minster to you, those who serve you. Take time today to thank them.
Choose today to take opportunities to serve others.

Choose Love - Verse 1

Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. Song of Solomon8.7

Choose Love
This week looks further into what it means to choose love. To begin, a powerful description of the power and depth of love. What can contain or conquer love?

Stop and Think

What has love meant in your life? What has its power and depth brought to you?
What is love? What words might be used to describe it?

Choose to Act

On this ‘Passion Sunday’, as we reflect on the suffering of Jesus, choose to embrace the depth and strength of love.

Choose Life - Verse 7

I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. John 10.10,11

Choose abundance
To choose Christ is to choose life. His death opens for us the way to life; his presence fills us with life - life in all its fullness.
What a gift.

Stop and Think

What does it mean for you to choose Christ?
How does his gift of life make a difference to you?

Choose to Act

Take time to consider your reflections and your choices this week. Have they born fruit?
Choose Christ today and to live in the fullness of the life he gives. Choose to share that life with others.