Devotion
Practice lovingkindness
David Jacobs
I love podcasts and listen to them regularly. One of my favorites is called the 'Tim Ferris podcast' with host, you guessed it, Tim Ferris. Ferris is an angel investor and all-around smart guy, constantly experimenting on himself in order to improve the way he feels, thinks, and acts. He had a Buddhist monk on the program that taught me something that I still use today: practicing lovingkindness. Every morning when the monk wakes up, he writes down a list of the first 10 people that he wants to share his love and kindness with. I started to do this, and it had a dramatic effect. Lots of the people on my list were people that I had problems with or that were on my mind. After writing their names down, the next time I saw them, it was as if the problems had melted away and been replaced with lovingkindness.
It is rather depressing to think of how few people we share our love with on a regular basis. Our love is also somewhat conditional, hinging on things like if they are faithful, reciprocate our love, or don't understand us fully. God has written His list of lovingkindness, and it contains every living thing. There are no conditions as there may be for us, but we should strive to accept God into our hearts. Until we do, we will never be able to fully love others, ourselves, or experience eternal life. His love for us is unconditional, but He gives us the choice of whether or not to reciprocate. The choice is ours; thanks be to God for giving it to us!
Prayer
Write your lovingkindness list. Who is on your list? Is God?
Night Prayer
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
Inspiration
We despise the thought of a pile of dirty dishes in the sink. The outside is easy to clean; it's the caked-up residue on the inside that's so difficult to remove. Jesus compares the scribes and Pharisees with dishes that have been wiped clean on the outside while dirty inside. The Pharisees took exceptional care of their outward appearance and neglected their inward spirits. We are guilty of allowing our hearts to be left filthy as well. We look and act as we should while our souls are full of darkness. We must continue to converse with the Holy Spirit daily and trust His guidance to cleanse our sinful nature.
Prayer
Dear God, Please forgive our sinful nature. We yearn for cleansing from within, so we are genuine witnesses to Your name. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
