REVEALING GOD DEVOTIONAL - THE LOVE FOR GOD
Praise God for another wonderful day to share a little thought again to ponder on. I will still want to continue my discussions on the line of love. Previously, we talked about how God loves us, and the balance we must understand between His love and His severity. So today I will be talking about what our response should be to God’s love.
The natural response to love is always a reciprocal love. You can always try it out. Once you keep showing a person love, no matter how tough that person might think they are, or how badly they keep trying to hurt you, one day love will break down their defence and melt his heart to respond back in kindness. The only way anyone will not respond to a continued flow of love is if he is the devil himself. The scripture says, “Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:20-21).
When a person genuinely gets born again, the first thing they will normally notice is an overwhelming feeling of God’s love, which makes them embrace God with their whole heart. In other words, they become willing to forsake anything they know will not please Him, and willing to do anything that will please Him. So in other words, when we love God, we will find it easier to obey His Word. That is why Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).
Once a Christian starts finding it difficult to obey God, they should check their love for God, because that is the only reason obeying God becomes difficult. Any Christian that says he loves God and is not obeying Him is only deceiving himself (1 John 2:4). After Jesus was crucified, Peter thought his ministry was over, so rather than preach the gospel, he went back to his old job of fishing.
The other disciples were with him one faithful day when Jesus appeared to them on the seashore after His resurrection and asked Peter thrice if he loved Him. Jesus was asking him this question because his love-talk contradicted his actions. If you love someone, it is seen in action and not verbally alone. Jesus loved us and that is why He stepped out of glory to take up a human body to die for us. The scripture said, “He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep” (John 21:17).
Most times the love of God that many Christians experience after salvation dies off because they let the distractions of the things of this world take their attention from placing God in first place in their life. We cannot love the world and expect to still keep experiencing God’s manifest love, because you can never love two masters equally. When both masters call you at the same time, you will always first answer the one you love most. To love God is to love Him above every other thing, whether it be parents, spouse, children, money, the universe, or even ourselves. You cannot say you love God if He is even placed in the second place in your life. He must be first, or nothing. The scripture says, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24).
Once we place anything first above obeying God or spending time with Him in His Word and prayer, we are loving other things more than God, and indirectly hating God. When we begin to notice this happening, we must not let it get too deep that we totally lose our love for God. We must quickly identify and repent from whatever is causing us not to place God in first place in our lives, because the world has a lot of attractive things to offer people in order to steal their love for God. But all those other things are temporary, and moreover our love for them will soon fade away with time. All the world has to offer us are things to pacify our flesh, eyes, and ego. The scripture says, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (1 John 2:16-17).
In these last days, there will be more pressure than ever to prevent people from loving God. There will be more fleshly desires, more time-consuming tasks, more need to work for our daily needs, etc. These are all subtle calculated strategies to make sure we have no time to put God first, and moreover not even have any time to serve Him. Therefore, for us to serve God in these times, we will need to make sacrifices and live more by faith. That is the only way we will be able to maintain our love for God. This does not mean we should not work, it simply means we must consciously learn to create time for God in this busy world, and be led by His Holy Spirit. The scripture says, “And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:12).
Our love for God is the greatest of all commandments, and on it hangs the effectiveness of all other commandments. So if we are not keeping the greatest commandment, it will be hard keeping the other commandments properly. And moreover, even though we keep the other commandments, but we don’t keep them out of love, we can easily fall into error when applying them. The scripture says, “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38).
It will be unwise to obey every other commandment and fail to keep the most important one. It will be like not writing an important core subject which carries more than 60% of your grade and expect to still pass well. This will mean if we don’t love God, our salvation will have no strong foundation to stand on the judgment day. Our love for God eliminates all kinds of fear and gives us the confidence to stand before Him on the judgment day. The scripture says, “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:16-17).
The body of Christ is not also left out, because when we look at the revelation of Jesus about the seven churches, the problem of the first church, which is the Church of Ephesus, was not because they didn’t keep the commandments of God, but because they had moved God from being first place in their midst. Therefore their obedience to God had become simply religious. The Church of today must be very careful not to let money, a pastor, or any church activity steal their love for God. The scripture says, “And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent” (Revelation 2:3-5).
The truth is that many Christians might never really experience the manifest love of God until they meet with Him. Therefore this does not mean they will not make it into the Kingdom of God, but loving God is a vital key for living Christianity properly.
Moreover, it is very easy to love God because He is love. All we have to do is to seek Him with our whole heart and not our head. In other words, you should obey God’s Word diligently because you want to love God, and not because you want to please your pastor or anybody.
When we love God and place it as the highest priority, we will continually experience His manifest love, which will make obeying Him easier. We must note that God’s manifest love is a feeling of deep revelation of God’s love to our whole being, but when we lose this experience it does not mean that God has stopped loving us. He will always love us. The scripture says, “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23).
I really hope you have been blessed by this discussion. If you have been blessed, I will be happy if you can share it to bless other people as well. Have a blessed day.
Today’s Reading:
Matthew 22, 1 John 2, Proverbs 20---
Nevertheless, if you are not born again you can do so today by saying this simple prayer below out with your mouth in faith, believing that Jesus Christ died and rose again for your sins.
Prayer for Salvation
Dear Lord, I believe Jesus died and rose again for me. Forgive me my sins and come into my life. I confess Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. Thank you Father for doing this for me. Reveal yourself to me today. In Jesus name, Amen.
Congrats, your status has changed to that of a child of God, if you said this prayer in faith.