What are the limits to how much you are willing to love and honor others? If showing affection were a competition, would you be winning, or would someone be outdoing you?

When it comes to loving one another, we are to outdo one another in expressing our love and in showing honor.

In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul encouraged the church to, “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” (Romans 12:10, ESV).

When you are overwhelmed beyond measure, what is it that you need? When the turbulent and troubled waters of life swell and threaten to overwhelm you in their torrent, who protects you? When the fiery trials threaten to consume, who is your rescuer?

God is our protector. God is with us when we are overwhelmed. God is with us in our troubles and hardships. God is our rescuer.

God spoke through the Prophet Isaiah, saying, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.” (Isaiah 43:2, ESV).

What does it mean to humble yourself? Have you ever humbled yourself, been humbled, or been brought low? How low can you go? How low do you want to go?

Pride is a pandemic. Humility is rare. However, humility is the high calling for the follower of Jesus. If we want to submit to the high call of God, we must get low in Godly humility.

In his first letter, the Apostle Peter encouraged suffering believers, saying, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you.” (1 Peter 5:6, ESV).

What is the condition of your heart toward God and others? Is your heart hard and calloused or soft and receptive?

God desires for us to have a receptive heart and spirit. God wants to give us a new heart to love him and to be receptive to his will.

God spoke through the Prophet Ezekiel saying, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26, ESV).

Have you ever tried to use appliances without plugging them in? What is it like to not have power when you need power? What is it like when the power is on?

Just like mechanical appliances require power to function properly, followers of Jesus also need the power of the Holy Spirit to properly function as God’s witnesses in the world.

When God gives us his Holy Spirit, the power of God is on in our lives. We have God’s power to do God’s work in the world.

In Luke’s work, the book of Acts, Jesus said, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8, ESV).

How should you love your neighbor? How do you expect your neighbor to show love to you? Why is it important for us to love our neighbor?

Jesus calls us to love God and to love our neighbor. It is essential that we express the love we have for God to ourselves and to our neighbor. Love fulfills all of God’s law.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Galatians 5:14, ESV).

What is your mind set upon? What are you often thinking of? Is your mind focused on the Spirit, on life and peace? Is your mind set upon eternity?

We can set our minds on material things or on the our fleshly desires, or we can set our minds on eternity and the things of the Spirit.

The Apostle Paul wrote the church in Rome instructing them on where they should focus their minds, saying, “For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” (Romans 8:6, ESV).

Have you ever experienced someone being merciless? Have you ever been shown mercy? Have you ever given someone the mercy you wished you had been shown?

It has been said that grace is getting what we do not deserve, and mercy is not getting what we do deserve.

God has shown us such great mercy.

When is your conscience at its clearest and your pathway most blameless? What guards you as you go through life? How is your way clear and secure?

Our righteousness is our guard against sin and the accusation of the enemy. The sin and brokenness that inflicts us will eventually undo and overthrow the wicked who impose their sin upon us. Righteousness will win the day and will bring about the blameless way.

The wisdom of the Proverbs promises us, “Righteousness guards him whose way is blameless, but sin overthrows the wicked.” (Proverbs 13:6, ESV).

Does what you wear communicate something about you? What are you saying about yourself or about God by what you put on display for others to see?

We communicate through what we put on display—by what we wear, by what we say, by what we do, by how we live in the world, and through the decisions we make. How we present ourselves matters because it communicates.

The Apostle Paul instructed the Colossian church, saying, “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience.” (Colossians 3:12, ESV).

Do you feel blessed when you are at your lowest? Are you thinking of another kingdom or way of life when you have a broken spirit?

In this broken and sin-filled world, it is easy to be impoverished in our spirit. We can feel weighed down by the cares, the traumas, and the brokenness in our lives and in the lives of those around us.

In the Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus promised, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3, ESV).

What does true love, dedication, and commitment look like? How do we love others well? What is the greatest expression of love?

Love is dedicated and sacrifices for the benefit of others. Love is a commitment to give of yourself for another.

In John’s gospel account, Jesus said, “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.“ (John 15:13, ESV).

Who is God sending you to? What is God sending you out to do? If God sends us all out to do his work in the world, what might that look like in our lives?

God sent his only son into the world for the purpose of our salvation, redemption, and restoration. Jesus was sent to us on a mission from the Father.

God sent Jesus on mission in the world, and God sends us on mission in the world.

In John’s gospel account, Jesus said to his disciples, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (John 20:21, ESV).

What does it mean that Jesus is our ascended High Priest?

Because Jesus ascended to the right hand of God in heaven, we can be assured that he is interceding on our behalf. We have an advocate with God. We have a priest who has lived in this world and who has experienced what we have experienced and who can identify with us and advocate for us. We can come before God with confidence and expect to receive grace and mercy because of Jesus’ ascension.

The author of the book of Hebrews proclaimed, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:14, 16, ESV).

How does God view children? What do children possess that we should aspire to?

God views children as his beloved who are close to God and to the kingdom of God.

Jesus spoke about children and the kingdom of God in Matthew’s Gospel, saying, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ‘Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.’” (Matthew 18:3-5, ESV).

What good gift of work has God given you? How are you gifted and skilled to impact the world with your labor, productivity, and creativity for the glory of God?

God has given us the good gift of work. We can cultivate creation to produce a fruitful abundance. We can impact this world to be better. We can make an impact and a difference through our labors.

The Apostle Paul instructed the Thessalonian Church, saying, “aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.” (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12, ESV).

What does God want for us to do, and to look forward to, in anticipation of his leaving and his returning again?

When God called his people out of slavery in Egypt and used his servant Moses to lead them to the promised land—their new home of blessing, peace, and provision—Moses sinned against God and was told he would not enter the land of promise. At the end of Moses’ life, he gave a final speech to the Israelites, God’s chosen people, encouraging them to love God and to keep his commandments.

In Moses’s last speech, the Book of Deuteronomy, he spoke to the people of God in several places, saying:

Have you ever been homesick? Have you ever longed for home—to be in a familiar place of comfort and security with the people you love?

God desires to dwell with his people. From the very beginning of time when God set a garden in the middle of his creation and placed humanity in the middle of the garden, God walked with Adam and Eve in the paradise of the Garden of Eden.

Since the fall of humanity, all of scripture reveals to us God’s pursuit of humanity, to rescue them, to restore them to himself, and to make his home with his people once again.

If you were going away, what would be your final speech to those whom you love? What would you want your loved ones to know? What would you want them to be? What would you want them to do?

Our last words reflect what we value and what we see as essential and of utmost importance.

In John’s Gospel, in chapter fourteen, Jesus was leaving his disciples to be crucified, to die, to raise again, and to ascend. Jesus was going away and he wanted to exhort his disciples to love God and to keep his commandments. Jesus wanted to comfort his disciples with the hope and assurance of the presence of the Holy Spirit who the Father would send in his name to help them, to comfort them, to dwell with them, to be in them, and to give them life.

What does God think of injustice? How should we treat our neighbors—those who are different from us, and those who are in need? What does it look like for us to do justice and to exercise kindness in the world?

This life is filled with injustice, inequities, prideful arrogance, and self-supremacy.

God spoke through the Prophet Micah, saying, “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8, ESV).