God's Love for Us vs Our Love for God

As we continue to work on seeking God and allowing His Spirit to shape our lives it is important to contemplate His love for us.

I heard someone speaking on this and it caught my attention. It is easy for us to focus on improving our love for God...ie, telling Him we'll do this for Him to show Him our love, etc. Have we really tried to focus on God's love for us? What He has done for us? What He has given for us?

Sure we thank Him for giving His only son for our salvation, but is that just remote thanks; or do we really comprehend all God has done? This is hard to do, especially if we are young and have never had children. It is very hard to grasp. God created the universe, but when He created us He created us for fellowship with Him. We are like no other in creation. Do we take this for granted?

The speaker I heard used Peter. Remember when Peter said I love you Lord and Jesus asked Him 3 times? Peter was all into serving and standing up for Jesus, but when rubber met the road (did they have rubber back then?) he didn't have what it took. Was he trying to do it in his own strength? Also, remember the conversation between Peter and Jesus at the Last Supper? "Peter said, 'Master, I'm ready to do anything with you. I'd go to jail for you. I'd die for you!' Jesus said, 'I'm sorry to have to tell you this, Peter, but before the rooster crows you will have three times denied that you know me.'" The Message

Of course this was before Peter received the promised Holy Spirit. The point...he was trying to do this all on his own...his enthusiasm, his commitment, etc. We cannot do this on our own and in our own love for God. We need to understand how much God loves us and gave for us. Grasp hold with all we have and allow the Holy Spirit to formulate in us a power that is unstoppable.

Can you imagine the impact we would have on those around us, if we truly got hold of this?

As we are allowing the Holy Spirit to form us into the image of God, make it a point to try and understand the magnificence of God's love...from there the love we have for Him will be a love that is passionate and contagious.

I want to end this post with a passage of scripture where Jesus is responding to someone who asked Him if only a few would be saved. This is His reply from The Message version,

"...Whether few or many is none of your business. Put you mind on your life with God. The way to life - to God - is vigorous and requires your total attention..." Luke 13:23-27 It is well worth reading the whole portion of scripture. Jesus says in verse 27, "Your kind of knowing can hardly be called knowing. You don't know the first thing about me."

Now this is a hard statement, but I want to challenge each of us, especially if we have known Christ as our Savior for a while. We have to be careful in how we live and our knowledge of God. Don't take it for granted. He loves us so very much. Let's make sure we are getting to know this person who is God in our lives. Really seek Him with all of our heart; do not get so busy with doing life and ministering to people, we lose the meaning of why we are doing life and ministering.

Be vigorous and seek God with your total attention!

Become strong women!

Become unstoppable and bring others along on your journey!

Have a blessed day!