Devotion by Ben Houser
Though I am only twenty years old, I have spent my entire life in ministry. You see, my dad is Jason Houser, the founder and leader of Seeds Family Worship. He started it when I was about five years old, so I basically have been surrounded by ministry and church activities my entire life. As long as I can remember, we were in church or singing at concerts. That was a lot of fun, but it also had me wondering if that is what I would want to do with my life or not.
When I graduated from high school, I decided to do a missions program through an organization called Youth With A Mission (YWAM). You spend about a year having all kinds of ministry experiences plus you learn a lot about who you are and what God has for you in life.
For one part of the experience, we traveled all over Thailand telling people about Jesus. Many we met had never heard of Him. Then something crazy happened. After two months there, I felt like the Lord was telling me to enroll in a Bible school in Taiwan. How is it that a boy from small-town-Idaho has become a world traveler? It seemed crazy to me too.
While in Bible school, I started going to this local coffee shop to find a quiet place to study. One day I met a guy named David. We started talking, I told him why I was there, and before long I was telling him all about how much Jesus loves him. He wanted to learn more, so each week, my friends and I met with him to share more about Jesus and answer his questions about the Bible. After three months of spending time with him and praying for him, he told us he wanted to put his faith in Jesus as his Savior! What an honor it was to pray with him to ask Jesus into his life. I thought of John 3:16 and how my friend David will “not perish but have eternal life.” Even though I may never see David again on earth, I know that I will see him again in heaven.
I John 4:11 says, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” I think back to that time in Taiwan and I realize that telling David about Jesus was one of the most loving things I could do for him. And I didn’t do it because I wanted to look spiritual. I also didn’t do it so I could put another notch in my spiritual belt of people I told about Jesus. You want to know my main motivation? It was an overflow of the love of God I had experienced. I felt Jesus’s love in my life in such a powerful way, I couldn’t NOT tell others about it. When I met David, I could see his hunger for something more in life and I just had to tell him about God’s deep love for him.
According to I John 4:11, what should be our main source of motivation for loving other people?
Jesus, help us to be intentional to love others well. Help us to root our primary motivation in an overflow of gratitude for the love you have shown us. We are so grateful for all you have done for us, for all the ways you have shown us love. We pray you open doors for us to tell others about you!
Take some time after this devotion to have your family write down the name of one person that they could be praying for. Pray for opportunities to tell them about God’s life just like Ben and his friends shared with David.
