May 12, 2014
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What the World Needs
Lately I have been thinking a lot about what it means to truly love God. Most of us know that's "part of the package" when you are a Christian, but from my observation, I wonder how many are actually, genuinely, passionately in love with God.
When I was falling in love with my husband, I wanted to be with him every minute. If I wasn't with him, I was thinking about being with him! I loved to make him smile. I loved hearing what he thought about things. I wanted to make him happy, and I would never, ever cheat on him or purposefully do anything that would hurt him. I felt it was important to express my love to him in thoughtful ways, and to tell him often that I loved him. Love is a CHOICE as well as an emotion. If you have chosen to love someone, your actions and emotions are usually engaged!
The word "love" is so overused these days. We love peanut butter, the beach, Star Wars, chocolate, hiking.... and God. We have tried to pull God down to our level and make Him ordinary. He could never be ordinary. I mean, how many others do you know who are omnipotent? Timeless? Omniscient? Fathomless in love and wisdom?
What does it mean to love God? How do we do that? Perhaps the most important thing we can do is get to know Him. How can we love what we do not know? We THINK we know Him, but often it is a "third person" kind of knowing. We tend to know a lot ABOUT God from hearing sermons, or singing songs about Him, but do we really KNOW HIM? Have we experienced Him for ourselves?
(Mark 12:30-31 AMPLIFIED) And you shall love the Lord your God out of and with your whole heart and out of and with all your soul (your life) and out of and with all your mind (with your faculty of thought and your moral understanding) and out of and with all your strength. This is the first and principal commandment. The second is like it and is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
It is impossible to worship or trust God if we don't love Him. Since worship and trust are expressions of our love and devotion, without that commitment, we are just going through the motions.
I also believe you cannot choose to just love God "a little bit." It is all or nothing. It is either total, sold out surrender, or it is empty, lukewarm gunk. Those who love God with all that is within them are those who live in the light of eternity. They are the ones who have built their houses on the Rock. They will stand when others fall. There will be no turning back.
Most of us want to love God cautiously. Most of us only want to give Him a smidgen of our lives. We still expect God to be incredible for us, but we don't want to invest too much in the process. Hmmm... No wonder the world is still lost. No wonder many consider Christians to be a joke when many of us have no passion or power.
If we love God, how can we struggle with fear? If we live in the light of His presence, His joy and peace should fill us. I am trying to be honest here. I know I need to love God more. I am often weak and lazy in my pursuit of Him. But, I know in Him I will find all my heart longs for. I know in this crazy, sin-sick world, His arms are the only safe place to be. So, my prayer for the church (and myself!) is that God will draw us nearer -- that we will become sickened by our mediocrity and choose instead to fall passionately in love with the One who created us for that purpose.
Comments (7)
Deep thoughts for a Monday! There is a constant struggle for me to trust completely. I vacillate but I'm also hopeful that God knows that I'm trying...
I am leading the prayer group this week and this helped me.
Either God is or he isn't
When I close my eyes I can feel Him
He is always on my mind
Deep in the night when there is no one else around
In the mid of day when I am completely surrounded
I can feel him
He is always in my heart
Even when I am angry with Him, I tell Him so, not as one might expect hoping he will change the way He works His plan, but rather as an admission of my own weakness and ignorance in understanding my role in the plan.
Sometimes He helps me by revealing a few more of the details for me, making it easier to follow. Sometimes I get caught up in my own vision and lose sight of the plan. He is patient. More patient than the sun and moon.
I was thinking about you today and was so very happy to find this post.
May God's love be with you, and may He always be on your mind, in His glory, as the Light.
Hi Pastor, Mae!
Good post and a very deep subject. I agree that the love of God by all of us is lacking--a sin from whom Jesus also died for. We will never be good enough to enter heaven apart from the finished work of Christ on the Cross.
I read the Bible annually and pray every morning. I try to live right, but my blowguns sites reveal my many failures.
I feel your concern--all pastors hope their congregation and all Christians will love and serve the Lord will full love.
It is tough for us humans saved or not.
Dear Mae ~ I really appreciate your honesty, because these are things that I deal with as well. That final paragraph ... those are my thoughts & prayers, too!~ "I know I need to love God more. I am often weak and lazy in my pursuit of Him. But, I know in Him I will find all my heart longs for. I know in this crazy, sin-sick world, His arms are the only safe place to be. So, my prayer for the church (and myself!) is that God will draw us nearer — that we will become sickened by our mediocrity and choose instead to fall passionately in love with the One who created us for that purpose." AMEN! HUGS, LOVE, & PRAYERS... Carolyn
You've really captured all the essinteals in this subject area, haven't you?
I don't know for sure! Loving God is a pretty big topic!