This was written by a friend of mine, Bill Dennigton from Georgia. this is Excellent!
I taught a series not that long ago on the Love of God. The focus of the
study was not on how we are to love God, or how we are to love one
another; but, how immeasurable God’s love actually is for us. In
meditating on the verses that speak of God’s love for us I came to a
deeper understanding of just how futile it is to attempt to love God
when you have no real revelation of how much God loves you.
One
example I saw from the book of Exodus was how Israel responded to God’s
great love for them. They just could not comprehend the depth to which
God actually did love His Chosen Nation. Egypt had so instilled a slave
mentality into that generation that came out of bondage that they saw
everything through the eyes of fear. They were programmed with fear in
their subconscious mind that no matter how good God was to them they
could not see the love and grace He was bestowing upon them.
Everything God did was because He loved Israel and honored the covenant
He entered in to with Abraham. That covenant was possible due to
Abraham’s love of God. That was what was being displayed when Abraham
tithed the spoils of his victory over the armies that took Lot and his
family captive. Abraham was not commanded to do that, he did it out of
love and devotion for God, even before the covenant had been cut. That
love became the catalyst for the covenant. You can see God taking
Abraham deeper into the relationship after that event. This was a
relationship based purely on love, faith, and grace, on both sides.
(Most outstanding when you consider Abraham was spiritually dead at the
time!)
Israel, on the on the other hand, was several generations
removed from all of that. 400 years of life in Egypt had affected them
greatly. That long season of living in a completely heathen society and
becoming the object of suspicion and hatred on the part of the Egyptians
had brought them to the place where they were now thinking only as a
subjugated slave class of beings. They, as a result, had lost all
concept of covenant love. Anyone and everyone who came in to order them
around was looked upon with suspicion and hatred. Just another oppressor
who was interested in only taking from them, not giving them anything.
This mentality was so deeply ingrained into their thinking that God
eventually had to let that generation die off in the wilderness. They
just could not accept or receive God’s love on any level, and, they were
incapable of loving God as He had commanded them to do for they saw Him
as an oppressor, not a deliverer.
There is so much more to share
along this line, but let me close with this… when you are only loving
God because you are commanded or expected to do so, you are still
approaching God with a performance based mentality. Any effort on your
part to express a love extracted by commandment will fall woefully short
of what God really desires. It is love that is pulled out instead of
love that is poured out.
Right along with that is that the love that
is performance based actually had a fear-based motivation that keeps
you from being able to make any kind of real heart-level commitment to
God. “Can’t do that, you never know when God might do something to hurt
me!” That is the thinking that is going on under the surface.
The
Apostle John demonstrates something very powerful that every believer
needs to grab hold to and develop in their lives. He recognized and saw
just how much God loved him. He saw this to the degree that he titled
himself in his gospel as “the one Jesus loved.” He became developed in
this, even before the new birth took place, to the degree that he was
completely unafraid to stand at the foot of the cross while Jesus hung
and died there. Jesus saw that fearless love and turned over the watch
care of His mother to John.
We find no mention of John ever
expressing his love of Jesus in any of the gospels. However, we do find
multiple occasions where Peter boldly expressed his love of the Lord. He
even declared that he would die with Jesus. But, Jesus saw that Peter’s
love was performance based. He told Peter that he would end up
betraying Him three times and that is exactly what happened. Peter was
nowhere to be found on the day Jesus hung on the cross for fear had
driven him into hiding.
John, in his first letter, reveals that perfect love casts out fear.
That love of which he speaks is not our love of God, but God’s love of
us. The greater the revelation of how much God loves us we develop in
our lives is the degree that we will find all the different degrees of
fear that have been planted in our hearts being flushed out. This in
turn enables us to begin to express our love of God, not from any
performance based motivation, but from a pure heart of true love pouring
out of deep appreciation with no strings attached.
Move from just
keeping commandments to living a life of freedom from fear and
performance. Open your eyes to the awesomeness of God’s great love for
us that was shown and demonstrated through Jesus Christ. Love because
you want to, not because you have to, and watch how God responds to a
fear-free love. It will amaze you and free you!
May you, the reader, be blessed by these words :)
Terry
Comments Welcomed
No comments:
Post a Comment