Having a devotional theme for your mission trip helps to bring focus and meaning to the trip. A unique devotional theme for each day of the trip adds variety and leads people to fulfill their purpose while experiencing God’s presence in the mission field.
Whether yours is a family mission trip, a youth mission trip, an adult mission trip or even a medical mission trip, the devotional theme of LOVE is foundational to all that you will be doing during your trip. God’s love and our love for one another is the main reason you have decided to be a part of God’s mission to the world.
Devotional Theme: Love
And over all these virtues PUT ON LOVE, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:14)
What is Love? To love is to accept others completely and desire only what is best for them (no matter who they are, where they live or what they may have done in the past.)
A Word to Ponder – If you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love. The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread. Mother Teresa
Remembering the last 24 hours, consider the following statements (written or simply spoken to others)
I felt loved when…
I expressed love when I…
I reached out to help (whom?) _____________ when I (did what?)…
I felt thankful to God when…
Devotional Prayer
Dear God, love is the best thing this world has going, and yet, there is so much hate and rejection. Help me always to be on the side of Your love and grace. Thank you for loving me and giving me the gift of life. Clothe me, above all else, with Your love today and every day. Amen.
From the Bible
Romans 5:5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Read also verses 1-5)
1 John 4:16-21 God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us, so that we’re free of worry on Judgment Day—our standing in the world is identical with Christ’s. There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love. We, though, are going to love — love and be loved. First we were loved, now we love. He loved us first. If anyone boasts, “I love God,” and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both. (From The Message)
Put Love Into Action
During the next 24 hours, if you are tempted to ignore or avoid another person, remember Jesus’ command to “love one another as he loved us.” As you come into contact with each person, welcome, befriend and love them as Jesus would love them.