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You are listening to the My Morning Devotional Podcast, episode 1468. Today's devo is called, "Guarding Hearts.". Hey there! We're the Alessis, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to-do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time.
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That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a 5-minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast. Hello everyone, my name is Lauren Alessi and I am your host for this week. We are talking about how love is blind in a good way. When we're talking about love for the Lord, we're not talking about dating. I think Gabby already did that or she's already going to do that. So please, this is about blind love for the Lord because I'm not here to give dating advice. And to be honest, guys, I— and I don't want to give dating advice, not in today's day and age. Okay, anyways, that's for you to figure out, not me.
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But anyways, we are talking about guarding hearts. So let's read out of the first verse. And kind of what I'm doing this week is I want to talk about love in one verse and then trust and hope in another verse and how that all binds together. So the first verse of the day says this, 1 Peter 4: 8.
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I like to read out of the ESV version, and it says this Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
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So let's keep loving each other because we're all human and we all make mistakes and we all sin and fall short of the glory of God every single day. I don't care how perfect you are or how long you've been a Christian, we all sin and fall short and sin every day. So when we love one another earnestly and purposefully, love is going to cover a multitude of sins. So we need to love each other. We're going to go down to Colossians 3:14, and it says this And above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. I think I mentioned this last year when we were talking on February, love, all these things, that I come from like a very principled lifestyle or a very principled home where it's like, do this, do that, do that. And I love it and we love each other and it's a great home, great church background. I love it all. But sometimes because principles are very non-emotional, do this, do that, it could be very hard for me to think about love because love takes a little bit more emotion. This is me. This is not anybody else. Sometimes when people start to talk about love and it gets a little bit more emotional, Sometimes it's a little bit tough for me because that's not how my brain works. I don't do well with emotions, which is bad because I'm a counselor. But anyways, I love how this verse puts it, because above all these, put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And I want to say that this verse is either talking— this is talking about faith, trust, hope in God, love, and above all of these put on love, which binds everything together. And the image I get in my head about this specifically is when you're cooking and you start off with like all these ingredients that are separated, and as it mixes and as it comes together, you see the end result. Like in a mixing bowl, you have flour, you have yeast, you have water, you have eggs, you have oil, and then as you give that time and it comes together and you see dough and it binds together in perfect harmony, and you're like, how did I get this dough from all these ingredients? Because the ingredients, they bind it together. That's the image I get when it comes with love. Above all this, put on love, because that's what's going to bind all of these together in perfect harmony. And what the Bible is telling us, what God is telling us, is that you can have faith, you can have hope, you can have trust, uh, you can have a principled life, but without love, you're not going to have perfect harmony. And I think that applies to us in everyday life, whether it's shallow, whether it's deep. You can have an amazing family, but without love in your family, you're not going to have perfect harmony. You can have an amazing spouse, and you guys have like a great schedule, and you have a great marriage, but without love, uh, you're not going to have a great, perfect harmony marriage. You can have kids that are disciplined, principled, in sports, at the right schools, but without love for each other, without loving them, without showing them love, you're not going to have perfect harmony. And we even see that in churches sometimes, that the church is great, but there's not a lot of love for each other, not a lot of love for the church people. And without that, we're not going to have perfect harmony.
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So let that challenge us today, that love is what is ultimately going to bind together. We need to have faith, we need to have hope, we need to have trust in God. We need all of those things, but without love, we will not come together in unity, in perfect harmony. Let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you so much for you, God, because ultimately you are the spitting image and the perfect example of love, of the ultimate love, because you sacrificed your Son to die for us. He is the perfect example of true love. Lord, help us truly know what love is. Help us truly feel that love for each other, towards ourselves. God, maybe we need to show ourselves a little bit more love, or maybe we need to show others more love, God. But just show us what that looks like, God. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So there you have it, your 5-minute daily dose of heaven.
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Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend. Leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow, we pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.
