Good day! Welcome back to another edition of the GSM blog. Once again my name is Dave Good and it is my honor to spend the next few minutes with you. I hope your week has been going well and that you are walking in the strength of the Lord and not your own.
Today I want to talk about what it means to love God. A few weeks ago I wrote a blog about the meaning of love and how much God loves us. This week I’d like to look at the other side of the coin and talk about how much we ought to love God.
It is quite evident that God has an overwhelming amount of love for each and everyone of us. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16 NKJV). God loves us enough to send his only Son to the cross for our sins, in order to allow us to have eternal life. I would say that is a very clear demonstration of His love. Please take a minute or two and meditate on how much Go’s loves you.
As the realization of the immense love of God sinks in, I feel it is important to evaluate one’s love for God. Are we loving God as much as He loves us? The answer is absolutely not. The love we return to God falls way short of His love for us. Remember when Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” (John 14:15 NKJV)
Plain and simple Our Savior says, if you love me keep my commandments. How many of us can say we have kept His Commandments? “As it is written: “There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10-12 NKJV). The conviction of the scriptures is sometimes a hard reality to swallow, but it is from this reality that we must begin to evaluate our love for God.
We will never be able to love God as much as he loves us so the challenge we face today is figuring out how we can love God better. We just revealed that one measure of our love for God is how well we keep His commandments, and the first obstacle we face is our understanding of those commandments. The only way to better understand those commandments is to search the Word for better understanding. The Word will give you more clarity of the meaning and purpose of his laws and statutes. The more time you spend in His Word the more you realize that the commandments, laws, and statutes are vessels of love for us. God had our safety and well being in mind with each and every law. “You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.” (Deuteronomy 4:40 NKJV). God wants the best for you. Period. When you realize the benefit of obedience and how that allows us to demonstrate our love for God, why wouldn’t you live a life pleasing to God? The fact that we can return the love of God by simply obeying his commands offers me so much encouragement.
Friends, we can never match God’s love for us, however we can reciprocate that love through the simple act of obedience. God always makes it simple for us. Start by searching His word and increasing your understanding of his commands, apply them to life, do your best to obey them and it will go well for you. It’s pretty simple. Despite the simplicity, we will find a way to fall short. When that happens we are to seek God and his forgiveness and grace, repent, and get back on track. Living a life based on these realizations is how was can display our Love for God. It’s what we all need to strive for.
I hope my words will prompt you to examine your love for God and, if you feel it’s falling short I pray you make the necessary changes. If you are upholding His laws to this point, I encourage you to keep on that path. Loving God should be our purpose and direction in life.
Refill with Randy 