When You Love God
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August 20, 2006 |
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 "I love those who love me; And those who diligently seek me will find me" (Proverbs 8:17).
It is not sufficient to say, "God is full of love"; it is more apt to say, "God is love." For He possess the great and wondrous power of love that cannot be fathomed by man, anyone can receive and enjoy from God salvation, heaven, and eternal life filled with blessing and joy. Furthermore, when an individual receives God's love, regardless of his physical background, status, and surroundings, he will be well-respected and successful.
Think about Joseph from "The Book of Genesis" for a while. As he was sold into slavery to a foreign land at a young age, Joseph had no wealth, education, or a financially and socially able sponsor who could look after him. On top of all this, Joseph was imprisoned. In fleshly terms, Joseph lacked every possible condition and requirement to become successful but as God loved him, however, Joseph could become second-in-command in all of Egypt.
Therefore, the most important issue for people who believe in God is whether or not they are loved by Him. God is not partial with His love only towards the specially chosen; He gives love to those who love Him as much as they love Him.
What kind of heart and behavior can we expect from people who love God?
1.People who love God will have cut off everything that is worldly and run every day to accomplish a heart with which God is pleased.
When you first accepted Jesus Christ, received the Holy Spirit, and realized God's love, you were probably so moved and touched in the heart that you remained speechless for a while. You would have then repented of your foolishness and arrogance of the past in not having believed in God, which had resulted in your denial of God and judgment of the believers.
The moment I knelt down in God's sanctuary, He healed me of all of the diseases that had tormented me for seven years. As I wept and wept, I repented of my past in which I had not believed in God, confessing to Him, "God, You are indeed alive! Thank you, God. Please forgive me."
Even though there is not a single thing we have done well - in fact, when we only have done wrong - God has shown us through Jesus Christ His great and wondrous love which man cannot fathom. Once an individual realizes this kind of love of God, he will begin to live in a way that is truly pleasing to Him.
After I have come to understand the existence of the Living God and His indescribable love, I began seeking out and doing things with which God would be pleased. After meeting with God, I have never failed to keep the Lord's Day holy. I have always given whole tithes and never attended any worship services empty-handed but prepared offerings with a joyful heart. Furthermore, including the Ten Commandments, I strove to live by God's Word found in the Bible.
The heart of people who have come to realize God's love and love Him is always fixed on Him. Naturally, nothing of this world can satisfy such people's eyes as they only set their sight on God and heed His Word.
Furthermore, cutting off any and all worldly things from their lives is not a difficult or burdensome task for people who love God. The extent to which they have cut off worldly things from their lives will serve as proof of their love for Him and as much as they have cut off worldly things, their heart will be filled with peace and joy. For example, once I realized that it was not proper for the children of the holy God to drink and smoke, I quit both drinking and smoking right away.
Once you realize God's love and love Him with all your heart, your love for Him will be the strength by which you can cut off worldly things and the driving force behind which you can joyfully live by the will of Our Lord and obey the Word of God.
As 1 John 2:15-16 tells us, by the power of your love for God, I urge you to cast off "the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life," and fill your heart with the love of Father God.
2.In their earnest longing to meet with God every day, people who love Him will earnestly seek and call out to God in prayer.
Just as a man always wants to spend time and be with the woman he loves, an individual who loves God will diligently seek Him because he would always want to meet with God. When we seek God with prayer and imploring in our love for Him, God will make sure to meet with us.
From the time I first met with God, I longed for the Lord's Day - on which I could worship God - every week. In order to meet with God every day, learn God's will, and live by the Word, I purchased and read a Bible, sang hymnals every night, and began praying little by little.
Whenever I sang hymnals and prayed, I shed tears and was deeply moved in the heart as I felt the love of Our Lord. As I sought God with all my heart and energy by going into mountains and to prayer centers whenever I could, He showed me His ways by personally guiding me through His voice.
Our God, more than anyone else, is waiting for you to come before Him in prayer. This is why He told us in the first half of Isaiah 58:9, "Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; You will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am.'"
However, if people seek God without loving Him, God cannot meet with them. In other words, if people profess to be God's children but remain in sin and evil, He cannot hear their prayer (Psalm 66:18). Therefore, meeting with God must first be preceded by repentance and separation from sin. Moreover, if you truly know and understand God's love and love Him, you will first need to commit everything to God first and ask Him to do His work. While additional prayer and devotion may be required according to righteousness depending on prayer topics from time to time, as He has promised, God will meet with people who diligently seek Him.
On this, Jesus told us in Luke 18 through "a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart," and Scriptures urges us in Galatians 6:9, "And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary."
The expression, "God meets with me," signifies that God's grace comes upon you, your heart is moved, and He gives you strength, answers, and blessings. When meeting with Father God, receiving His answers and blessings is good to you, but there is a greater joy in affirming His love for you.
Through such experiences, you will receive the strength by which you can live by and carry out the good will of Our God, cast off flesh, and enter spirit. For God wants our trust and love for Him to grow only stronger, He tells us that "those who diligently seek me will find me."
3.The lips of people who love God will deliver His love.
People who love God are bound to spread His love. For they will receive God's love by always keeping in mind His grace of salvation, cutting off everything that is worldly from life, and filling their heart only with their love for Him, they will be able to share that love with others.
When you testify to God's love you have felt and to God's power you have encountered and experienced, other people will also feel and sense God's love, become encouraged, thinking, 'I can receive God's love, too!' and come before Him. If a believer leads a difficult life and finds his God-given duty to be burdensome because he fails to receive God's love, that person could not share God's love with others.
One critical factor to keep in mind is that you must never insist on your own will when you say you love someone. If you looked at your loved one in your own righteousness, thought to yourself, 'Why must she be like that?' and made things difficult for her, your "love" would not be perfect. Love enables an individual to endure until his loved one can stand on her own and heartens her to overcome difficulties.
It is difficult for potent workers to be produced from a herd in which the shepherd leads the flock according to his own righteousness. Even if mistakes are made and shortcomings are found, believers can grow well spiritually and become powerful workers of God only when the shepherd trusts and endures for them in love.
Just as Our Lord has healed your wounds and consoled you, I urge you to heal other people's wounds and share God's love with them. When you become one with another person in love by encouraging each other to do better, that individual can feel and experience the overwhelming love of God, take root in His love, and together you can give glory to God in all aspects.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, the proof of your love for God is found in your obeying His commandments. May each of you become a messenger of God's love by - in your love for Him - experiencing and meeting with God every day and receiving his strength, answers, and blessings, in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ I bless!
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