Love is a feeling and our feelings should be based on whatever Jesus commands them to be. One of his commands, is that we love him. Not a weak love, but a love that exceeds even the love of our family.You might be wondering, ''How do I love someone who I've never met before, more than my family?'' Well, if you are in the family of God, you can't help but love him more than anything else John8:42- Jesus said to them, ''If God were your father, you would love me for I came from God and now am here. I have not come on my own; but he sent me.''
Love is an action as well as a feeling and it is an action because when you love God you obey him Jesus said ''If you love me you will obey what I command(John 14:15). But loving God does not just mean that we obey him, we obey him because we love him.
We were God's enemies, yet he loved us and made us his sons and daughters and now he commands us to love our enemies as he did. He has forgiven the ultimate debt, our sin. We can never love as he loves nor can we ever forgive as he does. But we must still strive to forgive and love more.
Matt 10:37- ''Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.'' Being worthy of him does not mean that we deserve him, it means if we love him more than anything then we are loving him as he deserves to be loved.
I know that I do not love God as he deserves to be loved, my selfish desires and sin cloud his worthiness. My only hope is in Romans 5:5- and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. I don't have the ability to love God, God gives me the ability to love him. As Augustine said in Confessions, ''Give me the grace [O Lord] to do as you command, and command me to do what you will.
6 comments:
Amen. I must say that I could love God a lot more than I do. A good question to ask ourselves regularly is "Do I remember a time when I loved God more than I do now?" Being honest in answering this question keeps our love fresh.
I know... :( I know I can love God more than I do now, so I need to pray about it.. a lot. I guess it has been that way ever since Adam and Eve sinned.. actually no, sin was in the world before that! Not actually in Earth, but when Satan was thrown out of heaven, that was because he sinned. So, since Satan planted evil in the hearts of man, and man have been separated from God, it has been hard to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. I need to work on that soo much!!
Good post. The only way that we can love God, is because He loved us first! Great!
~Kade
Great post Cj! Very chalenging!
Rachel: God said that everything he made was good. I believe that sin had not entered the world because there was not the effects of sin in the world. I believe that God made man with a disire to want what is best for himself, but who would chose what was best for him? Himself or God? Satan planted doubt, not evil. He got Adam and Eve to doubt that God knew what was best for Himself.
-Kole
Thus man sined.
-Kole
You're right, thanks for getting me straight on that!
Post a Comment