And, we need to learn to love God in many ways,
too. Are you 'in love' with Christ Jesus?
If you define that by applying the romantic ideals about love in our culture,
you will be disappointed. Yes, we should
be passionate to know our God.
Christianity without passion just isn't Biblical!
The grandest love story of all time is the story
of God's love for us, written in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. There’s
mystery in it. I could never explain how I loved my wife of 41 years just with logical
bullet points. Oh, I could have tried, but I found my love for her inspired by
more than her beauty, her diligence, her grace, her gift of children- and whatever
else I might list. I loved ‘her,’ the unique, complex person she was, with
something that defied complete definition.
In a similar way we cannot reduce the love of our Abba to a neat
paragraph of theological jargon. We should be able to converse about our love
for Him, but there is a mystery to it as well – one that should and will deepen
with time and experience.
There is a story that Jesus told about that
inspires our love for God. It isn’t a nice, pretty tale. It is about a
rebellious son, a man who selfishly abused his father’s good heart, who made a
mess of life. After he wasted his fortune and ruined his life he finally began
to grasp a little about the love he had known! He decided to go home. There he expected
to find condemnation and a place with the hired help, not in the family’s house.
What did he find? Love! "And while he was still a long distance away,
his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son,
embraced him, and kissed him." That is compelling stuff! It defies
logic, cannot be explained. It’s just love. John says that ‘we love because God
loved us first.’
We cannot love God apart from faithful acceptance
of the fact of His grace and love. If we won’t start there with Him, with His
love for us, inevitably we will turn our “love” into duty, deal making, and calculations
of appeasement. God just wants us to
respond to His declaration that He loves us and to weave that acceptance into
every part of life, making it the foundation of every choice, every day. The
Bible often talks about the concept of covenant
with God. Jesus told us that God was writing a new covenant, an agreement, based not on our performance but on a
gift. It’s not a deal, not a contract, that says “You do this and
then I’ll do this.” It is a declaration
of love, eternal, embracing, hopeful, amazing, and deep.
Ah, friend, do you love Him?
If we love Him, we will stop playing “let’s make
a deal” with God. Our theology of love will
go way beyond the idea that if we believe some facts, then we get the key to
Heaven. Our love will be a tumultuous
discovery of a Person, a weaving of His life into ours, surrender, acceptance.
In the process, we will start to think as He does, acts as He wills; not
because we must, but because we have become of His heart.
Let this 'love letter' inspire you today. Read of
God’s many-splendored love for you and bring your heart home to Him.
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and
blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons
through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise
of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves." (Ephesians 1:3-6, NIV)
So, "I pray that out of his glorious riches
he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being
rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints,
to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know
this love that surpasses knowledge,” Why?
So, “that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:16-19, NIV)
So, “that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3:16-19, NIV)
Lord, teach me to love You as I ought to love.
Inspire me my mind, enthuse my heart.
When other lovers offer me their delights,
Give me the courage and wisdom to choose You.
May love mature and deepen as I live for You and
with You
Until that moment that You invite me home forever.
Amen.
_________
Spirit Of God Descend Upon My Heart
Spirit of God descend
upon my heart
Wean it from earth
thro' all its pulses move
Stoop to my weakness
mighty as Thou art
And make me love Thee
as I ought to love
I ask no dream no
prophet ecstasies
No sudden rending of
the veil of clay
No angel visitant no
opening skies
But take the dimness
of my soul away
Hast Thou not bid us
love Thee God and King
All Thine own soul
heart and strength and mind
I see Thy cross there
teach my heart to cling
O let me seek Thee and
O let me find
Teach me to feel that
Thou art always nigh
Teach me the struggles
of the soul to bear
To check the rising
doubt the rebel sigh
Teach me the patience
of unanswered prayer
Teach me to love Thee
as Thine angels love
One holy passion
filling all my frame
The baptism of the heav'n
descended dove
My heart an altar and
Thy love the flame
Frederick Cook Atkinson | George Croly
© Words: Public Domain
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