Tuesday, August 18, 2026

Bible in a Year Reading Plan: Ecclesiastes 1-2 | 1 Corinthians 11

Love sounds beautiful until it asks us to open the places we have learned to protect. 

It’s easy to love from a distance, such as being kind without being vulnerable, caring without letting anyone truly know us, or keeping people at arm’s length because we are afraid of being hurt. Sometimes we convince ourselves that protecting our hearts is wisdom when really, we are allowing old wounds to keep us from experiencing genuine connection. 

But God never loved us from a distance. 

He sees every imperfect part of us and still chooses us. He knows our failures, our fears, our defenses, and our deepest wounds, yet his love remains steady. When we truly begin to receive that kind of love, it changes the way we love others. 

Romans 12:10
Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.

Genuine love doesn’t pretend, nor does it keep score. It doesn’t require someone to earn our kindness before we offer it. It doesn’t mean ignoring boundaries or allowing people to continually take advantage of us. Instead, genuine love means choosing to see people with compassion, patience, dignity, and grace, as God sees them. 

Because we are secure in God’s love, we don’t have to constantly protect ourselves from one another. We can apologize first. We can forgive. We can celebrate someone else’s successes without comparison. We can listen without immediately trying to fix. We can tell someone we love them and actually mean it. 

Perhaps most beautifully, genuine love can be redemptive. God can take the love we receive from him and use it to heal places in us that once made us afraid to love at all. You don’t have to become less tender to become stronger. You don’t have to build walls to keep yourself safe. You can be wise and still be soft. You can have boundaries and still have an open heart. 

Today, let God’s genuine love toward you become the source of the love you give away. You are loved without pretending. You are loved without performing. Because you are loved so deeply, you are free to love others genuinely. You don’t have to love from behind the walls built by your wounds. Let the love that found you at your most broken become the love that reaches others through you. 

Questions: 
Is there someone God is inviting you to love with greater patience, grace, or compassion?

Where have you been protecting yourself instead of allowing yourself to genuinely love?

Next Steps: 
Ask God to reveal one relationship where you can practice genuine love today. 

Spend a few quiet moments thanking God for loving you for exactly who and where you are, and ask him to help that love overflow into the people around you.

Choose one person to intentionally encourage, honor, forgive, or listen to.

21 Days of Prayer | Today’s Focus: For the Next Generation 

Prayer: 
Heavenly Father, we thank you for the precious gift of children you have entrusted to us. Help us to guide them in your ways and to nurture their unique gifts and talents. We praise you for making children in your image and giving them a share of your best qualities. Give us patience when we see them struggle with doubt, pride, or selfishness, and remind us of your grace and mercy in our own lives. Lead us and our children back to your purpose and your truth. We ask in Jesus' name, amen. 

Series Theme Verse:
John 13:35
“Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” 

Written by Heaven Nash, a regular contributor to the Daily Devotional.