JOHN 15:13
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
TO PONDER
I used to read today’s verses on the grand scale of actually dying for a friend, giving one’s life in order to save the life of someone else.
Seventeen years ago on the 26th April I preached on this verse at our surprise wedding (we knew we were getting married by only a few others in attendance knew) at our university church plant in Winnipeg, Canada.
During the sermon I used Michelle and my future marriage as an example of laying down your life daily for someone else in little ways, thinking of the needs of the other person ahead of your needs. While the wedding was very real, the ending of the sermon was staged after I challenged the mostly international students in attendance to lay down their lives daily in service for others, to put the needs of others ahead of their own needs, to think of others before they thought of themselves, to live sacrifically each day in a lot of small ways.
To give up your seat on the crowded bus for someone else, to take the small slice of pizza at the pizza party, share your lecture notes with the absent student, shovel the snow off your neighbours footpath, leave a decent tip at the restaurant even though you’re a poor student.
At the end of every sermon we would open up the service for questions where a staged question from the audience challenged us to begin that daily sacraficial life of marriage on that very night, so we did.
While after 17 years I still often struggle with putting her needs ahead of my own I continue to try every day in little ways, like doing the dishes.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, thank you for laying down your life for me on the cross and for showing me what living a sacrificial life daily was like through your examples and teaching I read in the Bible, help me lay down my life for my friends. Amen.
Today's devotion written y Danny Brock, LifeWay Westside