“Show Love” Devotional

Sunday Morning Jetpack is our new segment that highlights any kind of media that will provide you with some much needed good energy. You can find spirituality in the music, movies, podcasts, and other media you see every day. This article expands the Sunday Morning Jetpack video titled “Show Love.”

In their song, “Show Love,” Everything Is Recorded, Syd, and Sampha talk about how what really matters in life is showing love to others.

Swear I feel it everywhere

So much ego in the air…

If I die before I wake

Then I hope I made a change

I know what my purpose was

Show love, show love

…You’ve grown up to show love

There’s no love unless you own up

Everything Is Recorded, Syd, Sampha – Show Love

Syd and Sampha recognize that what stands in the way of us and our purpose is our ego. Many of us put way too much importance into what we think we need, what progresses our lives, or what we feel. 

What we really want is to live out our purpose, but to do that we have to own up and grow up in order to show love to the people around us. We need to take the initiative to step up in our relationship with God to give us the courage to love others.

How much of your time and energy is spent thinking about yourself and your own life? 

When we settle for living for ourselves and our ego, we stop trying to make a real change in the world. Let’s break down the lyrics of this song with some scriptures in order to understand how to step up to build our own conviction to focus on God and who he is calling us to be.

Swear I feel it everywhere, so much ego in the air

In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God.

Psalm 10:4 NIV

When there’s “so much ego in the air,” there’s not going to be much room for God, much less people, and we stop ourselves from seeing our purpose.

If we are really going to love others, we need to work to break down our pride. This takes being honest about the thoughts that crowd God out of our minds, and choosing to make enough room in our hearts for him to influence us. 

Reflection questions

• How has your pride crowded out God or others? 
• What thoughts do you need to be honest about to make room for God?

If I die before I wake, then I hope I made a change

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Matthew 6:33 NIV

Our lives are meant to be about more than just ourselves. We are meant to make a difference in the world. This is what seeking the kingdom is all about. When Jesus tells his disciples to seek the kingdom first, he is telling them to not make their own lives and their own worries their top priority. Instead, they should prioritize God and his kingdom. 

According to the Life Application Study Bible, this means “to put God first in your life, to fill your thoughts with his desires, to use his character as your life’s pattern, and to keep on implementing his Kingdom values on earth.” These kingdom values involve loving others and showing them God.

We are able to put seeking the kingdom first rather than just living for ourselves when we believe that God will give us everything we need.

Reflection questions

• Do you believe God wants to take care of what you need?
• What would seeking the kingdom first look like for you?

I know what my purpose was – show love

I may speak in different languages, whether human or even of angels. But if I don’t have love, I am only a noisy bell or a ringing cymbal. [3] I may give away everything I have to help others, and I may even give my body as an offering to be burned. But I gain nothing by doing all this if I don’t have love.

 1 Corinthians 13:1,3 ERV

In this scripture, Paul understood what truly mattered in his life. He could know everything, do everything right, or even sacrifice his life for a cause, but none of this mattered to him if he didn’t choose to love. 

We could get into the best school, be successful in our career, and have the boyfriend or girlfriend of our dreams, but none of this matters if we don’t love. Paul knew what mattered most, and based his life around that. Do you?

Reflection questions

• What matters most to you? 
• What would it look like to make your purpose be about showing love to God and others?

You’ve grown up just to show love, there’s no love unless you own up

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. [8] Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. [10] Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.

Galatians 6:7-10 NLT

The Bible says we harvest what we plant. What you put in is what you get out. This means that when we put most of our time and energy into making ourselves feel or look good, we will harvest decay – decay in our friendships and confidence. We are left with only ourselves because we only put work into ourselves. 

We need to put more time and energy into our relationship with God if we truly want to make a change in the world. We can’t rely on any person to do this for us. We have to own up, to take ownership and initiative in our relationship with God to become the people he’s calling us to be. This takes looking for every opportunity to love and do good, rather than focusing only on ourselves and how we will build our own lives. 

Like the song says, there’s no love unless we own up. We are in the lives of the people around us for a unique reason, and we can actually make real change if we choose to step up and show love.

Reflection questions

• Where do you put most of your time and energy? Into yourself or into your relationship with God and loving others?
• Who is God calling you to show love to today?

For a real-life example of what this would look like in relationships, watch our Sunday Morning Jetpack video, “Show Love”: