LOVE ISLAND - WEEK THREE - DAY TWO
Hello and welcome to your Daily Devos following our Love Island messages at 29:11! Take some time today to read through the scriptures provided, meditate on the lessons learned that are applicable for all of us from this week and journal your prayers. Have an amazing week 29:11 Church!
THEME SCRIPTURE:
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Ephesians 5:21-33 NIV
TODAY’S PASSAGE:
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27 NIV
REFLECTION:
One of the things I love about children is how fearless and dangerously confident they can be at times. I love how one child can approach another and declare, “You are my friend,” and just like that, they are friends. Those two children will carelessly jump around the playground, climbing as high as they can, with no fear of falling or getting hurt. When they inevitably get hurt, children often have the resilience to get back up and continue as if nothing happened. Part of growing up is losing some of this fearlessness, often for protective reasons. However, I believe the enemy can twist this natural maturing process. Our once mighty confidence can turn into insecurity, doubt, and fear.
As Christians, we are made in God's image, both male and female. We are distinct and different, yet both genders are special and cherished. I think our modern society generally does a good job of encouraging and empowering women. When done biblically, this is a beautiful thing. We want the women in our lives to feel the value that Christ has placed in them! One thing our society does not do very well these days is empowering the men in our lives. Insecurity, doubt, and fear have seeped into the lives of men, and the world does not do much to help them out of this. However, God wants to do something about it.
God wants men to feel empowered to be men! God created men to embody biblically masculine traits such as being leaders, protectors, and providers. Whether you are a husband, a father, a future husband or father, or simply a leader to others, God wants to empower you! You are made in His image, and it is for that reason that you have it in you to be all the things He has called you to be! Men, when you are feeling powerless, useless, and insecure, remind yourself that you are modeled after the Creator of the universe!
THOUGHTS TO PONDER:
Take some time to reflect on the insecurities that the enemy has tried to place over you. Now, take some time to declare the victory of Christ over those things. You are made in God's image, which means you are mightier than the enemy who is trying to stop you!
