The Love of God: His Love, Our Love
The Lord recently gave me a vision as love is in the air more so than the rest of the year I guess. I think it's kinda sick. But just the same God spoke to my heart and let my eyes see and hear, and my mind think: what if Valentines Day was a day to love God as well as each other? What if we as a church gathered in corporate worship and loved on God, and brought Him our gifts. What if we took our eyes off of ourselves put as much effort, time, money, and love towards our Savior? He is the only reason we love. We could not truly love another if we did not have His love, if He had not loved us first. To know love we must go to the source of love. God is love. The Trinity is love. The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father. There is no life outside the Trinity-everything I do, I do by the Spirit in me, through Jesus to the Father. He is who love is, where love it, and what love is.
I think many times in our Christian lives we think a lot about His love, we talk about it, however, few of us tend to ever really experience it firsthand through prayer, worship, and acts of obedience. If we are to know the love of God, we need to know God Himself. Do you know God better than you know your wife, husband, children, sister, brother, any relationship? If we were to honestly assess our hearts we might find that we have neglected God, and made an idol of other relationships.
The greatest commandment in the Bible is to, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. And to love our neighbor as our self. Do this and you will live!" He is demandful of our devotion to Him because He knows that without Him it's detrimental outcome. We have an absolute need for Him! Solomon reminds us saying in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that eternity has been planted in every human heart. This means that there is a hole in every human heart, and until God fills it, you will be one miserable person. We need His love to fill us before anything else in life, or else everything under the sun is going to depress you, and leave you feeling empty. But when we live through the SON, not everything is meaningless anymore, things begin to have purpose, our relationships, our love for one another. We need Him.
I read the most eye opening book a month or so ago called, "Completely His," written by Shannon Ethridge. This book described how very much God my Father, and Jesus my Savior who sees me as His bride, loves me. It overwhelmed and changed how I thought of God. He was no longer so distant to me, I no longer was afraid of Him. I use to feel like I was just this huge screw up, and He was so tired of dealing with me, and I made Him mad all the time. But it's simply not true. Consider some of the things Shannon Ethridge had to say in the next few sentences as becoming, Completely His...
Regardless of who or how many have left you, or hurt you, God will never be one of those people. He can't not love you, it goes against His very nature. Once you are in relationship with Him, He will never leave or forsake you. He is forever committed, this makes Him only deserving of our limitless love in return. Did you know His heart does flip-flops when our attention is turned toward Him? Every time our hands are lifted in prayer, and worship, or we think of Him, He loves it! It excites Him! He loves it when our hearts are turned toward Him, because it results in our obedience to Him, and what parent doesn't love an obedient child? The greatest reward we receive when we obey Christ is it makes our relationship with Him all the more intimate.
How do we encounter God? In the pages of the Bible. Each word written to speak straight to your heart. We find stories of people we can relate to and we find ourselves feeling Jesus' love a little more real, we gain a better understanding. Don't let your Bible sit and get dusty on the shelf. It's like not reading a written letter from someone who loves you very much. You will never know His love, you will never know Him promises, you will never know how He wants you to experience Him, and your life will never change. You will sit dormant, never growing. Know His Word, apply His Word. Experience Him fully.
Don't be content to keep dating Jesus-it's time to marry Him! We will for real be married to Him soon and very soon. It's time to lift the veil! Let Him love you.
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