ACCORDING TO THE WORD, Part 4

Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

 6. UNDERSTANDING ACCORDING TO THE WORD 

Psalm 119:169, “Let my cry come before you, O Lord; give me understanding according to your word.”

“Give me understanding, Lord.” Is this the cry of your heart, dear mother? Oh how we need understanding each moment of the day. Proverbs 24:3 tells us that it is by wisdom and understanding that we build and establish our homes. That means that we can’t accomplish our great task of mothering without the anointing of understanding.

What is the middle letter of the word, truth? It is U, which stands for understanding. Understanding is the heart of truth. You can’t have understanding without truth. And you can’t have truth without the Word of God.

There is worldly understanding and there is godly understanding and they can be poles apart. Don’t be content with humanistic understanding and what seems good to you. Make sure it lines up with God’s eternal Word. Add an extra sentence to your prayer, “O Lord, give me understanding according to your word.” It is as you are immersed in the living Word of God that you will be filled with His understanding.

Oh yes, when you get God’s understanding, you might be out of step with the rest of the world. I am always challenged by the Scripture Romans 3:4. “Let God be true but every man a liar.”  Are we prepared to stand with God’s truth even if everyone else is doing something different?

How can we receive understanding from the Word?

1. By asking God. Make today’s Scripture your prayer each time you open the Word, “O Lord, give me understanding according to your Word. Open my eyes to behold wondrous things in your law.”

2. By digging. You need to get below the surface to hear the heart of God. It’s not enough to read the Word. You have to think about it, meditate upon and chew it over and over. I love to check out the Hebrew and Greek words. I use a wonderful Bible, which helps me to do this. It is the Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible edited by Spiros Zodhiates. I wouldn’t use another Bible. I read the King James translation but also like to check other translations that often give further understanding.

There is one thing that is very important to remember. The truth of a particular subject is not found in one Scripture. It is what God says about the subject from Genesis to Revelation. When you check out every Scritpure in the Word of God on a particular subject, you’ll then have a full understanding of what God is saying.

3. By divine insight. God comes to my spirit with a flash of enlightenment. Oh I love it when this happens. But mostly I have to dig. Read Ephesians 1:18 and Colossians 1:9.

4. By discussing. Whenever I am meditating on a certain Scripture or thinking about a specific subject, I talk to my husband or daughters about it. “What are your thoughts about this?” I will ask. We always discuss our latest thoughts and revelations when we get together. It’s our favorite thing to do. It’s a great way to fine-tune your understanding. As we discuss together, we adjust one another, and are spared from getting on a tangent. Our thoughts are also deepened and expanded. There is nothing more satisfying than discussing the Scriptures and sharing insight and revelation with fellow believers. The only sad thing is that so few believers really want to do it.

Get into the habit of asking your husband for understanding. “Oh but he’s not walking with the Lord,” you exclaim. That doesn’t matter. God has made him your covering, whether he walks with the Lord or not. Ask him for his insight on all matters. Ask him for his understanding about Scriptures too. There’s nothing like asking him to get him searching. And because God has ordained for him to be your head, you’ll be amazed at what insight God will give him.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Oh God, I long for your understanding. I can’t adequately mother without it. Please give me insight and understanding according to your word. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION: 

Words of life, words of hope,
Give us strength, help us cope;
In this world where'er we roam,
Ancient words will guide us home.

Many women like to save these devotions. They print them out and keep them in a folder to read over and over again. Some print them out and pin them on the fridge with a magnet to read through the week.

If you know others who would be blessed by these devotions, you are welcome to forward them or let them know they can subscribe by sending a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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1 Thessalonians 4:9, “You yourselves are taught of God to love one another.”

 We don’t learn to love on our own. It is God, the source of love, who teaches us. Let’s keep learning more…

Leaping Love

2 Corinthians 8:7 says, “Therefore, as ye abound in every thing… and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.”  I love the Way’s translation of this Scripture, “Full you are to overflowing… of the love that leaps from you hearts to mine…”  What an exciting description of love. I think of a frog jumping from one rock to another. Can you get the picture of love leaping from one heart to another within your family? This is not stagnant love. Leaping love is vibrant, pulsating, overflowing. It won’t stay in the heart. It constantly leaps from one member to another within the home. Pray that God will fill all your hearts with leaping love for one another. This is what you call exciting living!

Disciplinary Love

1 Peter 1:22 in the Knox translation says, “Purify your souls with the discipline of love…” This is a good thought. Love takes discipline. To live an undisciplined life is selfish. It is not thinking of others but only of one’s self. To sleep in late, to let the household chores pile up, and to let the home get disorderly because of an undisciplined life is not love. Disciplinary love makes sure meals are ready on time. It makes sure meals are tasty and nutritious. It makes sure the home is orderly so everyone can enjoy living in it.  Even though it takes effort, true love will be disciplined to keep things in ship shape for the blessing of everyone in the home.

Sacrificial Love

1 John 3:16 says, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Jesus revealed pure agape love when He, who was God, laid down His life for us who were sinners. This is the greatest sacrificial love. And yet, in the same way, He asks us to lay down our life for others. Read also Romans 5:8 and Ephesians 5:25. This certainly does not come naturally, does it? It is only when agape love kicks in that we can walk in sacrificial love.

Patient Love

“Love suffers long.” (1 Corinthians 13:4). The Greek word for longsuffering love is makrothumeo which means ‘to be longsuffering as opposed to be given to hasty anger; to endure patiently as opposed to despondency; and is used of exercising patience towards people.’ How easy it is to get impatient with those we love. They don’t come up to our standards. They take so long to do something. They can’t grasp what we are trying to teach them. They exasperate us. But God’s agape love that resides within us is full of patience. Instead of waiting in despair, it waits in hope, believing that God is working and will work to fulfill His purposes.

James 5:7-10 gives the illustration of the farmer who has “long patience” to wait for the harvest of his seed. In the same way, we often have to have long patience as we wait to see God work in those we love. Instead of getting impatient and despondent, claim the promise of Philippians 1:6, “Being confident of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” Every day, thank the Lord for the good work He is doing in your husband and your children.

Kind Love

“Love is very kind.” (1 Corinthians 13:4) The word in the Greek is chresteumai and means ‘to treat as one’s own family, to show oneself useful, to act benevolently.’ One writer said, “You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.” Love gives! Constantly gives. Love gives tangible gifts, but love also gives reassurance, encouragement, smiles and cuddles. And perhaps the biggest gift that love gives is time! Time is a love-gift. “Love ever gives, forgives, outlives, and while it lives, it gives! For this is love’s prerogative, to give and give and give!”

We must also remember kind words. The testimony of the Proverbs 31 woman is that “in her tongue is the law of kindness.” (Proverbs 31:26) It is the law of love. The word kindness in this Scripture is the Hebrew word chesed which is one of the most important words in the Old Testament. It relates closely to the word ‘grace’ in the New Testament. It describes God’s unfailing love, kindness, devotion, favor, mercy and grace toward us. This is the kind of teaching that should flow lovingly from our tongues. May God anoint us and help us!

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

 “Lord, I thank you that you are my teacher. You are the source of love. Lead me more and more into the fullness of your love. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

We are going to become a Leaping Love family!

 Many women like to save these devotions. They print them out and keep them in a folder to read over and over again. Some print them out and pin them on the fridge with a magnet to read through the week.  

If you have missed the previous devotion in this series, go to the Above Rubies web page,  where you will be able to pick them up under the Archived Devotionals .

If you know others who would be blessed by these devotions, you are welcome to forward them or let them know they can subscribe by sending a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To unsubscribe from the Above Rubies Devotional, send a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

2 Peter 1:7 “Add to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness love.”

Peter urges the saints to add agape love to their human affectionate love (philadelphia). This kind of love is precious, but if we are going to continue to grow in the Lord we must add agape love. We will walk in this love as we mature in Christ and allow Him more and more to live His life through us. There are other Scriptures that also urge us to move on from phileo to agape love.

1 Thessalonians 4:9, “But as touching brotherly love (philadelphia), ye need not that I write unto you: for ye yourselves are taught of God to love (agape) one another.”

1 Peter 1:22, “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth…unto unfeigned love of the brethren (philadelphia), see that ye love (agape) one another with a pure heart fervently.”

Let’s keep searching to see what this agape love is like, the love that God wants us to add to our lives.

Edifying Love

“Love edifies.” (1 Corinthians 8:1; Ephesians 4:16) Love does not pull down. It builds up. Agape love will build up and encourage your husband even when all you can see are faults. Love will look beyond the faults and find good things to affirm and encourage. Agape love will delight to build up and encourage each one of your children.

Abounding Love

“Abound in love one toward another…” (1 Thessalonians 3:12) Agape love is not average love. It is not even a “full to the top” love. It is “flowing over the top” love! The word Greek word, abound is perisseuo. It is an amazing word. It means to 'super-abound, to be excessive, to excel, to increase, to have enough and to spare. This reminds me of something I read years ago, “If a little bit of love isn’t effective, increase the dose.” A little bit of love is not enough for many situations. You can only have the victory with massive amounts of love. It takes abounding love that overflows. (2 Corinthians 8:7; Philippians 1:9; 1 2 Thessalonians 1:3)

Comforting Love

Oh the bliss of comforting love. (Philippians 2:1-2)

Knitting Together Love

Agape love has the power to knit cold and estranged hearts together. (Colossians 2:2)

Laboring Love

Love is not just a nice feeling. We prove our love by working hard to bless those we love and choose to love. Paul calls it a “labor of love” in 1 Thessalonians 1:3. Be encouraged. When you feel worn out because you have been working so hard to care for your family, remember that your hard work is a labor of love! Work is love; and love is work!  And it is not in van. God notices. Hebrews 6:10 says, “God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have showed toward His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.” We can also be encouraged from ` John 3:18, “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.” The word deed means ‘to toil’. This is how we show our love. By toiling and laboring hard for those we love. The Knox translation says, “Let us show our love by the true test of action…” We could also call it “actionary love.” It is not just words, but actions.

Pure Love

1 Timothy 1:5 talks of “love flowing from a pure heart, from a good conscience.” (1 Peter 1:22)

Forgiving Love

“Be ye kind to one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4:32) Love is not love that does not forgive. Even when Jesus faced the greatest abuse that any human could endure, He said, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)

Fervent Love

1 Peter 1:22 tells us to “love one another with a pure heart, fervently.” Also read 1 Peter 4:8. Other translations help us to understand more of what fervently means—heartily, intensely, earnestly, deeply from the heart, wholeheartedly with all your strength, as if your lives depended upon it.”

Never Giving Up Love

We see this love revealed in Jesus when it says in John 13:1, “having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.” We can start loving someone, but when they become difficult, defiant or refuse to receive love, it is tempting to give up. Natural love easily gives up. It is only agape love that keeps on loving until the end, no matter what.

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Lord, please help me to move into the realm of living in agape love. I don’t want to have a meager ration, but to be overflowing with your love which never runs out. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

Many women like to save these devotions. They print them out and keep them in a folder to read over and over again. Some print them out and pin them on the fridge with a magnet to read through the week.

If you have missed the previous devotion in this series, go to the Above Rubies web page, www.aboverubies.org where you will be able to pick it up under Previous Devotions.
If you know others who would be blessed by these devotions, you are welcome to forward them or let them know they can subscribe by sending a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To unsubscribe from the Above Rubies Devotional, send a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

1 Timothy 1:14, “The love that is in Christ Jesus.”

It is easy to love when someone loves you, isn’t it? Reciprocal love is sweet and special. But how do you love when someone does not like you? How about when they throw abuse in your face? Hate you? Disrespect you? Misuse you? What do you do then? Maybe you can cope with it when it is someone outside the home. It is not so personal. But how do you cope when they are members of your own family? Help!

I am sure you are familiar with the different Greek words for love. The first is eros which is sexual love. It gives pleasure to the senses. It is a God-given love, but this kind of love is not enough to hold a marriage together for life. It takes other kinds of love—phileo (and storge, which is similar to phileo) and agape. Phileo and agape are both necessary in marriage and family life, and, of course, in all relationships.

Phileo is tender affectionate love. It is a maternal love. It is the love we feel with our emotions. Titus 2:4 speaks of phileo love when it exhorts the young women to “love their husbands, to love their children.” Some marriages live happily together when both show phileo love to one another. But when phileo love turns off in either the husband or wife, then there are problems. It is then we need agape love.

Agape love is God’s love. It is the very character of God. It goes beyond natural feelings. It keeps loving even when abused and hated. It keeps loving even when the person is ugly and horrible. Agape loves because it wills to love whereas phileo loves according to how we feel. Agape loves indiscriminately whereas phileo discriminates. Agape loves unconditionally whereas phileo is conditional. Agape loves in spite of, whereas phileo loves because of. Agape love never fails whereas phileo love often fails.

Agape love is not in you or me! My flesh only knows phileo love. Agape love is only in Christ. 1 Timothy 1:14 and 2 Timothy 1:13 speak about “the love which is Christ Jesus.” The amazing revelation is that Christ Jesus lives in me! Because He lives in me by His Holy Spirit, agape love is in me! Wow! In Christ I can love with agape love! This is miraculous. This is supernatural. Can you believe it? As we believe it, affirm it, confess it and walk in it by faith, we can love the unlovely, love when abused, love when rejected, love when despitefully used. Oh the power of redemption. Jesus Christ not only redeems us from our sin, but comes to indwell us by His Holy Spirit with all His love, joy, peace and longsuffering.

Agape love is described by different words in the New Testament. Shall we look at them together? Each one of the following 31 points are a real challenge to me but the last one I mention is the one that God is really speaking to me about as I mother in the home. You’ll have to keep reading to the end of Part 5 to find out!

Unfeigned Love

Agape love is not hypocritical. The Knox translation calls it “unaffected love”. It is unaffected by circumstances or the behavior of the person. Read Romans 12:9; 2 Corinthians 6:6 and 1 Peter 1:22.

Genuine and Sincere Love

“To prove the sincerity of your love.” (2 Corinthians 8:8)

Serving Love

“By love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13) The word serve is doueuo which means to serve like a slave. We don’t serve because we are a slave but we serve as hard as a slave is expected to serve. We serve because we love. Many times you can feel overwhelmed by the tasks you face as a mother. There is so much work to do. Every sweet little child adds more work. Your husband expects you to do this and do that. Help! You feel like a slave! Dear mother, change your thinking. Don’t think of yourself as a servant. Think love. Love loves to serve. Love serves with delight. Love is serving.

Forbearing Love

“Forbearing one another in love.” (Ephesians 4:2) Forbearing means to endure and put up with those who are difficult to put up with! It means to bear patiently with idiosyncrasies that annoy you. This kind of love bears lovingly with the weaknesses of those in those in your home. I love the Way’s translation of 1 Corinthians 13:4 which says, “Love is long-forbearing.”

Love from NANCY CAMPBELL

PRAYER:

“Lord, my love is totally inadequate. I thank you so much that your agape love resides in me. Please help me to walk in your love. Amen.”

I am entering into a new realm of love.


Many women like to save these devotions. They print them out and keep them in a folder to read over and over again. Some print them out and pin them on the fridge with a magnet to read through the week.

If you know others who would be blessed by these devotions, you are welcome to forward them or let them know they can subscribe by sending a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To unsubscribe from the Above Rubies Devotional, send a blank email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.