20 August 2025
Daily Devotion:
“Love in Action”
Romans 12:9
English Standard Version
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.
A sure way to add a lot of tension to your life is to pretend to be something you're not. It takes a lot of time and energy to maintain a false persona, and most people don't have an excess of time or energy. It never works out anyway. As soon as you pretend to be a boss in the kitchen, someone will nominate you to supply all the cakes for the community bake sale. It's better to be genuine up front and let people know that your cakes are of the grocery store variety.
The same goes for loving other people. You won't find joy in being phony or over the top; a person's true heart will always be revealed. Paul's instruction to believers was simply to be genuine. The reality is that to love genuinely is to live joyfully.
Imagine what it would look like if everyone genuinely loved one another. We'd be able to celebrate one another without bitterness. We could choose grace over grudges. We could link arms and walk through trials together. And we could livejoyfully as brothers and sisters in Christ.
