Love God in Everything, with Everything
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· 11 viewsHumbling ourselves, and loving God with everything we have
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Love God in Everything, with Everything
Love God in Everything, with Everything
Open: Happy official start to the Holiday Season!
Prayer
Imagine a time in your life as a kid where you anticipated something so great, that half of the fun was simply the anticipation. What is it for you? What is the time or thing that had you so consumed nothing else mattered. You couldn’t wait, you aspired, you prepared, your very self was identified with what was coming. For me it is the Christmas season. The music, the atmosphere, the decorations, family and friends.
As I was thinking about this very thing, it lead me to the verse:
3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
3 and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5 “And whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me;
The attitude of a Child... not consumed with the worries, or the anxieties, or the pressures of the world... Their devotion is simple and straight forward.
We must become Children of faith. We must die to ourselves daily. He must increase in us daily. If they are the ones who will be the Greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.. then they clearly had mastered what these others had been concerned about...
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All three of these pieces of scripture are referencing
5 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Let’s break this down:
With our heart: Our desires, our affections should stem from our love for God
With our soul: Our very being should stem from our love for God. Our aspirations, our goals, our dreams, what we want to accomplish should stem from our love for God.
With all our might: Our resources, our strengths, our gifts, our abilities should come from our focus and our love on God alone.
Every aspect of who we are, what we do, how we live... In thought, in action, in use of energy, in use of resources, in our being, in our aspirations... The same way a child devotes his/her time to something they absolutely desire, love...
What did this look like for the ancient Israelites?
5 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
6 “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
7 “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.
8 “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.
9 “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
10 “Then it shall come about when the Lord your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build,
11 and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied,
12 then watch yourself, that you do not forget the Lord who brought you from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
Every aspect of who we are, what we do, how we live... In thought, in action, in use of energy, in use of resources, in our being, in our aspirations... The same way a child devotes his/her time to something they absolutely desire, love...
1. When we love God, we are no longer slaves to sin.
9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men
1 Corinthians
1 Corinthians 6.9-
If every ounce of our being is to love God, then ...Every nook, cranny, crack, corner, closet, EVERYTHING needs to be revealed, opened, and cleaned.
2. When we love God, everything else stems from this organically.
26 In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
27 and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
28 And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Romans 8.26-28
Our focus doesn't have to be on all of these individual "fruits" or "characteristics" of Christ/Christianity, but rather we because our focus is on Him, everything else will work itself out
In order to do this... We first have to understand that the only way we can even possibly do this is because God first loved us.
19 We love, because He first loved us.
How does God demonstrate His love for us?
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
This Christmas season... when things get overwhelming. When the nostalgia is at its strongest. Or in the mist of the sadness of not being with loved ones... Remember the true reason for the season, and then remember what we have called to do. Be a child, and give every ounce of your being to loving our Wonderful Father.