There is a movie where a young lady is taught to be a princess. Brought up in the same palace as the queen/king, her mother and father, one might wonder why it would be necessary to train its princes and/or princesses. Then I read this Scripture! Born into the Kingdom of Heaven, what training could we possibly need, to act the part of our new title – Sons/Daughters of the Most Hight God? God knew that we would struggle with this, so He ordained His messenger Luke, to share His teaching on how we must act in our new capacity. Let’s seek the voice of God as He relays this to us today.

DATE POSTED Sunday, 2022-12-18
WRITTEN AT: O’Brien, FL

BY: Ed Algreen

SCRIPTURE FROM: Luke 6:32-36
TRANSLATION: Amplified Bible (AMP)

BIBLE TEXT: 32 If you [only] love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend [money] to those from whom you expect to receive [it back], what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners expecting to receive back the same amount. 35 But love [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for] your enemies, and do good, and lend, [k]expecting nothing in return; for your reward will be great (rich, abundant), and you will be sons of the Most High; because He Himself is kind and gracious and good to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful (responsive, compassionate, tender) just as your [heavenly] Father is merciful.

APPLICATION: Salvation comes when we recognize the love, power and peace of our heavenly Savior. At that time, we decide that the life we were living, has done nothing for the eternal destiny that we want in heaven. So, we seek out the face of Jesus, and we make a 180 degree turn in the direction for our lives, with the help of Almighty God. But what happens to our years of experience in achieving the mannerisms and actions that we were taught by our earthly parents and by those we spent time with? We can’t bring those teachings with us, because they led us to a life of sin and eternal damnation. I believe that’s where our lesson comes in today, for Jesus saw the same challenge as He watched and listened to His followers. I love the way that Jesus pointed out critical areas of our everyday life, and how our attitudes towards each of these actions would change, when guided by the Holy Spirit in our new life in Jesus Christ. While I realize that all of you reading, or listening to, this devotional could easily identify the areas that Jesus pointed out, I would like to re-emphasize the teaching of, or training by, our Master on this subject:
–> On loving others: Jesus knew that our natural instinct would be to love those who show love towards us. But Jesus showed us in many instances throughout His life, and especially on the cross at Calvary, that His love is unconditional and without regard to whether we love Him or not. In aligning ourselves with Him, and in vowing to live our lives by following His example and obeying His teachings, then we would need to love differently than we were first taught. To be sons and daughters of the King, our love towards others must imitate the same love extended by our Father. If you don’t feel accomplished in this unique type of love yet, let me encourage you to draw even closer to God so that He may work in your life and give you the power to overcome your earthly desires and hindrances.
–> On doing good: While it may be easy to do things for people that love us, it becomes increasingly challenging to do things for those that despise us and seem determined to destroy us. Those who seem undeserving of our help. With Christ, all things are possible. Seek His strength, guidance and compassion to do for even those who seem unworthy of our effort. When we love unconditionally, we will more easily do things for others without expecting anything in return.
–> On lending money: Coming from a banking career, this one seems harder than most of the others, for me! Bankers are taught to protect depositors’ money and only lend when we are fairly certain that the funds could, and will, be paid back to the bank. That’s the easy kind of lending, because it was not our personal, hard-earned money that we were lending out. Jesus is training us to lend, even when we don’t expect to receive repayment, for it would demonstrate His kind of love, and His gift of life that He surrendered on Calvary for even the undeserving, and especially for those who couldn’t possibly pay Him back.
–> On being merciful: The world teaches us to become even harder on those who persecute us and cause us grief. But in our training lesson from Jesus, He wants us to be merciful to everyone, especially those on whom the world looks down on, and turns their noses up to. Remember the blind man by the roadside as Jesus passed by? The crowd pushed him back and tried to silence him, but Jesus called him to Himself and had mercy on him. You may come across several today who want to see Jesus at work, but they are rejected by the crowd and pushed back as undeserving of His time and mercy. Will you be part of the crowd, or will you stand up for Jesus?
May God grant you the strength to not only accept His Son as your free ticket into heaven, but to also live according to His teachings and example, as He taught in this Scripture today. Let’s all learn to be a child of the King, even when it is different to the world’s teachings and expectations.

BLESSING(S) NOTED: Jesus simply said that our reward will be great as we allow His training to guide us into loving others like He did; doing good to others as He did; lending money without expecting repayment; and being merciful to others in the same way that He did. In fact, we would become children of the Most High God!

PRAYER: From a world of sin, and training in earthly selfishness, to a Kingdom ruled by the Prince of Peace, the King of all kings and Lord of all lords. May we all catch a fresh glimpse of the One who demonstrated perfect love towards us; the One who showed us personally how to do good for those who may appear undeserving of our attention and effort; and the One who showed mercy even towards those who came to arrest Him. Please kind Master, teach us to reflect Your image, Your unselfish giving and Your humble attitude towards everyone. This world in which we live could benefit so much from seeing You at work, especially through the skins of Your humble and obedient servants. Draw us closer to the cross Lord and draw the unsaved away from the hard shell they developed from the world, so that they too might see, experience and accept our risen Lord. Oh, that You may become more evident to our world, because of the recommitment of those who claim You as Savior and Lord. May we not only see You more clearly but demonstrate Your teachings to all that we encounter. AMEN!