30 Aug 2009
We were created to love. We will love something or someone without fail; it is our nature. We are made in the image of God.
God is in all ways and at all times loving. [ 1 John 4:8 ]
We will love the things we choose to love. Stop here and write out your three top love choices. If this seems difficult …… below are some ideas to help you get started.
· Start with those things that you think about when your mind is able to wander.
· Take a look at your check book register. [ where your treasure was spent your heart first went ]
· Scan your calendar for the past few months.
God commands us to love Him:
Matthew 22:37 (AMP)
“ And He [Jesus] replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect). This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment.”
However, since the fall, we are biased to love the things of this world. What did you write down?
You will not die immediately if you failed to write down three things that you love ….. but we will each die sometime. When we die we will be faced with judgment.
2 Corinthians 5:10 (AMP)
“For we must all appear and be revealed as we are before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive [his pay] according to what he has done in the body, whether good or evil [considering what his purpose and motive have been, and what he has achieved, been busy with, and given himself and his attention to accomplishing].”
One aspect of this judgment will no doubt reflect on the things that we loved while we were on this planet. Most of us focus our love in one of two primary areas: God or this world. God is clear; we should love Him and not love the world or the things of this world.
1 John 2:15 (AMP)
“ Do not love or cherish the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in him.”
It is interesting that we can not love God with all of our heart, mind and soul and at the same time love the world and the things of this world. These two potential objects of our love are mutually exclusive. While we are loving the world and/or the things of this world we can not love God . Further consider this possibility. To avoid loving the world or the things of this world the only effective antidote is to choose to love God with all of our heart and with all of our soul and with all of our minds.
Do you love God?
Do you love the things of this world?
Love for the things of this world is sin.
Someone once said: "If you are sitting on the fence …. be careful, Satan owns the fence."
1 John 2:15-16 (NLT)
15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.
16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.
A significant step toward personal revival is the deepening of our love for God which automatically brings a rejection of the love of the things of this world.
John 14:21 (AMP)
21 The person who has My commands and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself to him. [I will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to him.]
Matthew 22:37-38 (NLT)
37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
These scriptures point us in the direction of loving and obeying God. To do this we must turn from the love of the world and the things of this world. In order for revival to fall on our land our current evangelical churches must turn from the love of this world and the things of this world to an intense love for God, one believer at a time.
Are you ready to make a commitment to this choice?
O HeavenlyFather, reveal to us the ways in which we love the things of this world and lead us into sincere repentance.
Father, strengthen and deepen our love for You through our times in your word and through our two-way communication with You.
Application Challenges:
1. Read and meditate in the book of 1John daily for 30 days
2. Ask God daily for thirty days to reveal the ways in which you love the world and pray for the strength to turn from this love to a strong love of God.
3. Ask God for one thing to fast from for thirty days. Listen carefully and God will prescribe exactly what you personally need to draw nearer to him and to love Him with all of your heart and all of your soul and all of your mind.
Jeff Williams
|
