And you shall love the Lord...

Jan 2,2010
“The Greatest Calling-within the reach of anyone who wants it: it is not the great and amazing things we imagine ourselves doing, it is LOVING God and KNOWING Him intimately”

“The greatest & first commandment: to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength. God’s will for our life doesn’t have to first do with what we are going to DO, but with WHO we are going to become.”

I’ve always wondered why Jesus spent most of His life doing normal things, why didn’t he start his ministry until he was thirty? And why did it end so quickly? It wasn’t long after that he went to the cross. I always thought, what a waste. How much more could God have done through him with that time…but could it be that he was learning to love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength? He loved his Father perfectly while on earth, for the Scriptures tell us he was without sin, and for that very reason he was able to be our pure spotless lamb, the ransom for OUR sins. But just b/c he was God, does that take away from his humanity? It says he learned obedience through suffering. Could it be that all those years Jesus was suffering? Was the BIGGEST dream of His heart not to stretch out His hand and heal the sick, to bind up the brokenhearted, to deliver the captives, to testify of the Father’s love, to lay down his life for the sheep? Was he waiting for it earnestly, did is heart long oh so strongly to fulfill that dream? Was he suffering all that time, in the waiting? In our waiting, maybe we also, have the fellowship of his sufferings. It wasn’t about what he was going to DO, it was about WHO he was going to prove he was through demonstrating the working of that supernatural power. Right before the start of his ministry when he was led by the Spirit into the desert to fast for forty days and forty nights and Satan came to tempt him, what was the first thing he asked Jesus? “If you ARE the Son of God, turn these stones into bread.” He first attacked His identity. As his descendents, as children of God, the enemy is still on a rampage to steal this identity from us. Because he knows if we understand WHO we are, we defeat him and oh the victories that the kingdom of God gains!

God is worthy of all honor, praise, adoration, dominion, power. His very nature demands these first and because of this demand of his nature he must execute judgment and justice in the earth to satisfy it. His command for love is above all else. Now I understand why 1 Corinthians 13 says that without love, we have nothing. We can speak in the tongues of angels, we can prophesy, have spiritual knowledge; we can worship God without love. That is why the Bible says he is looking for the true worshippers, those that worship Him in Spirit and in truth. Because we can worship God out of a place that is not love, out of selfishness, out of a religious spirit, and many times we do. But he wants us to love him with the same love with which he loves us. The kind of love described in 1 Cor 13. We must have LOVE for God. Want to lay down our lives, lay down everything for Him!! Abandoning what we want for His glory. Oh Lord, teach me how to love you through obedience.

Are we being faithful and obedient to love the Lord in every place he has us? If we're in the waiting, are we groaning and complaining, discouraged and wishing we could reach the place we dream to be? Or are we loving the Lord with everything right now, giving Him our best? Oh Lord, help me! Forgive me for the days I live this way. Help me to love you with steadfastness and be faithful with what you have entrusted...