Oakwood Church Fresh Start Women's Devotional Encouragement for Today Hartland Delafield

Secure Your Own Mask First
By Jen Wollner

“’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength…Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Mark 12:30-31

If you’ve ever been on an airplane, you probably remember the flight attendant reviewing the safety information as the pilots prepared for take-off. There are instructions given for many procedures, including what will happen in the event of a loss of cabin pressure. If this occurs, an oxygen mask drops down from the ceiling and you are supposed to put it on and begin breathing normally. One key directive, though, is that you should secure your own mask before helping others around you. It’s noble to want to lend a hand to someone else first, but in this case, if you do, you may render yourself utterly useless to the person you are attempting to assist.

Our verse for today gives a similar command regarding our spiritual lives. Jesus Himself tells us that the first and most important thing we should do in this life is develop our personal relationship with God. We are to know and love Him with everything we have and are. Our entire being…heart, soul, mind and strength…should revolve around loving Him. We are to fill ourselves completely with Him, breathing in His life-giving love. It’s only then that we are best equipped to move on to His second command…loving others. And I love that this transaction is as natural and moment-by-moment as breathing in, then breathing out; breathing in, breathing out.

What happens sometimes, though, is that we give and serve and empty ourselves for others, but we don’t take the time to fill ourselves up on the Lord first. We get too busy or too tired to interact with Him through His Word or prayer. If we make this mistake, we’ve failed to put on our spiritual “oxygen mask” and may risk “injuring” ourselves as well as those we serve, particularly in times of crisis. There’s a reason why Jesus listed loving God first…because He knew we would need to do that before we could successfully follow His second command of loving our neighbor. Our obedience to this instruction directly correlates to the kind of impact we have on the lives of those around us. The more we love God, the more love we can and will show to others.

So, put on your mask, take a deep breath…and then turn to your neighbor, overflowing with God’s love.

GOING DEEPER:
When could you set aside time today to get to know God better?
After doing that…who in your life needs love? How could you show godly love to that person?

FURTHER READING:
1 John 4:7-12

Jen and her husband are busily parenting three children under the age of 6. Jen heads the Fresh Start ministry and is on the leadership team for Mission: Hope, Oakwood’s orphan care ministry.