For The Love Of The Lord

I love the Lord, do you? I mean how deep and wide is your love for the Lord.?

I began my walk with the Lord when I was in my teens. I went to youth group at our church and it was the beginning of the walls being knocked down. I haven’t always been a strong believer, a strong follower.

Life has made me become strong, and the Lord has never given up on me. I love the Lord, and I am stating that I am sold out to him. I am not the man I should be, but I am not the man I was. The thing is with the Lord we are all a work in progress, because we must totally give up our desire to control. The Lord wants us to literally “Let Go, And Let God.”

John 3:16-17

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His  only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

You see He first loved us, He loved us so much that the Father sent Him to become a lowly human. He was totally human and yet totally God. We were created to be the Lord’s companions. We were created to be able to walk with the Lord, to talk with the Lord. We became separated in Eden.

The Lord looked for the right moment to come back and make a way for us to be together. Because of Jesus and His sacrifice for us we now have the Lord abiding in us, the Holy Spirit lives in us.

1 Corinthians 6: 19-20

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

1 Corinthians 13: 11-13

When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.

We have the Holy Spirit living in us, that means that our relationship with the Lord is close and personal. Do you see that? Do you see just hos deep and wide the love of God is for us?

As I have walked through life, preached the Word, studied the Word, and prayed and listened to the Lord my love for Him has grown and grown and grown.

I need the Lord, I want the Lord, I love the Lord!

Joshua 22:5

Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God and walk in all His ways and keep His commandments and hold fast to Him and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

Joshua 23: 11

So take diligent heed to yourselves to love the Lord your God.

We are told that we are to love the Lord, but I am saying that in a real relationship with Him loving Him is natural. The closer we are to the Lord, the deeper our love for Him will be.

Think of your family, your spouse. You met, dated and hung around together. Your relationship grew and developed. You grew to know one another, love one another then at some point that love grew to a point that you married one another. As a married couple you love should continue to grow ever wider and deeper for one another.

Just as many have relationship issues with the Lord many marriages have issues as well. The have their spouse at arms length, just as many have the Lord at arms length.

When issues come, which they surely will, that relationship will get rocked, tested and stretched to the breaking point. What we do at these times say a lot about us and our understanding of that relationship.

If you develop your relationship, work on your relationship, develop your love and work at your love your relationship will be strong.

Our relationship with the Lord is the same. We need to develop it and work that relationship. In all cases this is a two-way street. The big thing here is the Lord waits for us to approach Him, reach out for Him and get to know Him.

He knows us and is open to allowing us to get to know Him, it means we must come to Him.

The Lord wants us to be willing to give up our old ways, to let go and walk with Him. As He tells us we can not serve two masters.

Matthew 6:24

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and  wealth.

We are to love the Lord our whole being, heart, soul mind and body, with all our strength. God is to be first and foremost in our lives. Our priorities, God first, spouse and family second, job third. Too many in the world have that upside down, having job first family second and God last.

Try and turn it around and see how your life will change, see how God will bless you.

I recently wrote a message on Worshipping in Spirit and In Truth. That comes from loving the Lord, loving God with our being. It comes from a relationship with God that is not based on an image we believe is how we are to be. It is based on a real personal relationship.

Love, love the Lord with all your heart, soul and body. With all that you are. Then you will worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.

Mark 12: 29-31

Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Do you have the love of God in you? Is your relationship with God such that you are filled with the love of God? Are you filled with love for God?

John 5: 39-44

 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?

As I close this message consider the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. The love of God is in us, we can return that love to Him, we should return that love to Him!

In doing so we can worship in spirit and in truth.

Romans 5: 1-6

Therefore, having been justified by faith,  we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.  And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

I love the Lord, I am not caught up in a wave of emotion. I have developed my love through relationship. I know the Lord and in knowing Him I love Him!