SCRIPTURE: Matthew 24:12-13ESV And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
THOUGHT: Matthew 24:12 hits me where it hurts. It’s been rattling around in my heart for a few weeks as I’ve participated on the roller coaster that is our country. I’ve asked myself, as anger and despair toggle with disbelief and numbness, is my love going to grow cold? With all this distance between humans, love can easily become conceptual more than lived out. I see people behind their masks, and keeping their distance, but the remoteness I feel between us seems deeper and greater than six feet. We are increasingly separated by ideas and choices and fear. The nature of love hasn’t changed, but I struggle with how to show it.
I’m grateful that verse 13 comes along after 12 – a reminder that enduring is called for – and enduring not just a little, but to the end of all things. Like and having done all, to stand (Eph. 6:13). Like love endures all things (1 Cor. 13:7). Like the one who endures to the end will be saved.
So, a word for today: endure. Don’t let your love grow cold.
PRAYER: Remembering is so important to the life of faith, oh God. The instant my heart would grow colder, remind me of the warmth of your agape love for me, and for this world I live in (Jn. 3:16).
Amy released a full-length book in early 2021, Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. Maybe you’d like to check it out here.
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