“For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish
but have eternal life.”
John 3:16
Amidst the twinkling lights, baking, and shopping, I pray we follow our Father’s example and give the most important gift: love. I hope this blesses you as much as it did me. Merry Christmas.
Life is fleeting. More fleeting than most of us think about on a day to day basis. But I think anytime we look back over the life of a loved one who’s gone, we realize again how very momentary it is.
I want to pack all I can into this life. I want to do all the right things, and I sure don’t want to miss anything God wants for my life. I don’t want to miss His purpose in having me here, and I’ve caught myself feeling frantic that I’m not doing enough, or worried that God’s disappointed that I haven’t gotten everything right. Maybe I’ve messed it all up.
I grew up learning to be a perfectionist, that if I could just do everything right I’d be worthy of love, and that spilled over into my relationship with the Lord. Do everything right and He will love me.
But that’s getting the cart before the horse.
God already loves us, and what He wants from us, is us.
He desires us to love Him, to grow in our relationship with Him.
If we practice loving Him with everything in us, everything good will flow from that. Anything we do for Him, any obedience, any service, any use of our gifts, will be a result of that fellowship of love.
Jesus said the greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
Matthew 22:37
That word commandment means an injunction, an authoritative prescription.
This is what the Lord’s been impressing on my heart lately. “Rest in Me. Focus on being, not just on the doing.”
And yes, of course I love the Lord, but there’s always room for that love to grow. He wants us to love Him –
– with all our heart. Choose to trust Him with every emotion, every anxiety, every worry;
– with all our soul . Choose faith in the love and goodness of God in every circumstance, no matter what’s happening;
– with all our mind. Choose to believe in Him with all understanding. Take every thought captive to obey Him.
Receiving God’s love and loving Him back is God’s prescription for the health of our entire being, heart, soul, and mind.
Sometimes this life doesn’t quite turn out the way we thought it would or ever wanted it to. But God knew, and He’s had a plan all along.
In the middle of the mess He says, “Focus your energies on loving me with your whole being, and anything I desire you to do I will show you and enable you to do it.”
Just a couple of chapters later, after Jesus tells His disciples the greatest thing we can do is love God, His disciples ask Him what will be the sign of His coming and of the end of the age.
He tells them, among other things, that “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Matthew 24:12-13
He didn’t say the love of some, or the love of many, but the love of most will grow cold.
Whether we’re facing the end of the age now or not, there is a lot of hatred and violence and destruction going on out there publicly, and in a lot of ways we’re each being stretched personally. We’re suffering, we’re hurting, we’re confused, we’re downright angry.
The enemy will try to use all that to cause our hearts to harden and grow cold.
But if we purpose to love our Heavenly Father with all of our being, we won’t be one of the most.
Instead, we’ll be one of the few with His love flowing in and through us that will be like an oil causing the light of Christ in us to shine brightest when the world needs it most.
This life is fleeting.
Wouldn’t it be great if someone looked back on our life and said “How they loved the Lord”?
And even more, facing Him at the start of our new life, having loved Him with everything?
That’s a scene from the movie Tomorrowland. Of course that metaphor has probably been told a thousand different ways for a thousand different scenarios. But first and foremost, it’s a spiritual truth:
“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Galatians 5:16
Our flesh is always pulling at our shirts, jumping in our faces, snarling in our ears. It doesn’t like to hear no for an answer. And saying no is good, but if we don’t say yes to the Spirit, that vacuum will beg to be filled with something.
That word walk in Galatians means “…to live, follow (as a companion), go, be occupied with…”
We are privileged to have as our Companion, sun up to sun up, 24/7/365 (or 366 as the case may be), the Holy Spirit. When we walk with Him, follow Him, obey Him, the vacuum will be filled with all things pure, and good, and holy.
When we feed the spirit inside us with prayer and reading God’s Word, we will starve that beady-eyed, snarling flesh. We’ll start noticing the fear and anxiety has silenced, and in its place is divine fruit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Light and hope in place of darkness and despair. Seems like a pretty good deal to me.
Not only do we need that right now (as always), but that’s what the world needs us to have. It needs to see there’s another, better way. It needs to see Jesus.
Dear Almighty God, Heavenly Father, we praise your name. We praise you for your goodness and your faithfulness. We acknowledge that your ways are higher than ours, that your plans are holy and righteous.
Father, please forgive us for our sins. We pray your Holy Spirit is free to move in and through us with His love and wisdom and kindness. We pray for your strength and courage to remain steadfast and faithful to our calling as dearly loved children of the Holy One as we weather this storm.
Lord, let us be a beacon of your light as we walk in the peace and love that only you can give. May we stand out as a light in the darkness, prepared and ready to serve you in whatever way you call us. May your will be done.
Lord, we pray you would pour out your Spirit and bring a revival such as we have not seen in a long time. We pray you would soften hearts, open spiritual eyes, and grant repentance so many can come to faith.
Father, we pray for a swift end to the virus that is making its way around the world right now. We pray you would give wisdom to the leaders, wisdom to those who are working hard to come up with a vaccine, and wisdom for each of us as we choose our steps.
We look to you, Lord, the One seated on the throne in heaven, the One who rules the world, and yet is near to us, as near as our own hearts, indwelling us with your Spirit, leading us with love and compassion.
Thank you for all you are, for all you are doing, and all you will do. We pray in the holy and precious name of Jesus, our Yeshua HaMashiach, our Yahweh, our Adonai, our Elohei Ma’uzzi, our El Roi, our Jehovah Rapha, amen.
I am so blessed to be able to sit in church on Sunday and worship the Lord with some beautifully composed music and be fed by pastors who love the Lord greatly and study hard to bring us Bible-based sound teaching. During the week there’s a Bible study and home groups. My social media page is full of pastors and messages that remind me about God’s truths. I have at least 15 Bibles in several translations, and more faith-based books than I will probably ever be able to finish. On the internet I have access to teachings from some of the most gifted pastors and teachers from all over the world, countless commentaries, uplifting Christian music…
And I wonder how many other people are doing the very same thing Sunday after Sunday, week after week.
We are deluged with messages from and for believers of every type, for every situation, every level of faith, and every age.
So why does the church, at least here in America, seem more anemic and ineffective than ever?
Why do we live our lives largely indistinguishable from the world?
Why do we get up in the morning and still feel like we’re being sucked under the trials of life, wondering where the joy is we’re supposed to be experiencing? Why we’re not feeling like an overcomer? Why we aren’t living that life Jesus talked about when He said:
“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.
I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly”
(John 10:10)
That question has a lot of answers, but I want to tackle just one right now. Could it be the thief is still working hard to steal, kill, and destroy as much of that abundant life as he can, and maybe he’s using busyness, even “Christian” busyness, to do it?
Could it be that we have so much all around us that we are kidding ourselves into thinking we’re living a Christian life that would lead to abundance without really living it?
Maybe all the doing – sitting in a seat on Sundays, singing along, having a Bible (and maybe even opening up from time to time), maybe listening to a Christian song every now and then or even reading a faith-based book, is causing us to think we’re accomplishing something.
But maybe all it’s become, if done in the flesh, in our own strength, is nothing more than a rote religion, or just another sort of self-help.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control…”
(Galatians 5:22)
Jesus came to give us life, and when He went back to the Father He gave us His Holy Spirit to bring about the abundant life we desire and Christ died to give us.
All those things – the teachings, the worship (the music is not a warm-up concert for the pastor!), the studies, the reading, are all meant to draw us closer to Jesus as we walk through them with the Holy Spirit. He is the power in our lives. He will bring about the abundant life we all so desperately want.
We’re on a journey with Him to know God and love Him more, to grow in faith, not to just put in our time on Sunday morning. Walking with Him is not just part of our life, it IS our life.
God desires to do so much in our hearts, our minds, and in and through our lives, and He wants us to partner with Him – to seek Him, to know Him, to love Him – as we do those things.
Do we pray before going to church, asking and fully expecting to hear from God, to receive from Him what He wants to say to us? Do we use the time we sing together to truly worship the Lord, to enter into the throne room of God and praise and exalt Him and let Him prepare our hearts for His message? Do we pray for our pastors during the week, that He will speak to them as they prepare the teaching, and that He will speak through them on Sunday morning? Do we pray before reading God’s Word or other books, or before listening to teachings online?
Do we pray without ceasing, inviting the Holy Spirit to speak to us and change us through those things?
Are we, the branches, clinging to the Vine, allowing Him to use all those things as nourishment for our souls, bringing its fruit in His time?
What all those things are meant to do, what they should do, is draw us closer to Jesus, reminding us of His love and grace and mercy so that we will continue reaching out to Him, reading and studying His Word and praying, inviting Him into every aspect of our lives. Inviting Him to leave no sin-stone unturned in the sanctifying of our souls. Inviting Him into every bit of suffering, every attitude, every decision, every joy.
Oh Church, we must leave the dead religion behind and get back to a living, breathing relationship with the One who died to bring us abundant life – to mold us into His image, to bring about the godly treasures we could never find in the world if we looked forever, and to be a light to the world.
Can you imagine if we invited the power of God into our lives every single day? If we let the Holy Spirit continually have His way in and through us?
If He changed the world with 12 men, what could He do with a nation full of Spirit-filled, God-fearing, mercy-loving believers?
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
(Ephesians 3:20-21)
.
Heavenly Father, thank you for not only giving us your Holy Spirit to be with us, but to indwell us. He is an amazing gift and we are so grateful. Help us to always walk in the Spirit, to breathe and live and grow and speak in the Spirit. Help us to cling to you through Him so that He might produce the fruit and gifts in our hearts and lives that you desire so that we, as your church, your kingdom, can be effective witnesses and bright lights to the world around us that’s so dark and seems to get darker every day. Help us to have wisdom and discernment to know how to live in this world, but not to be of it. Help us to glorify and magnify the name of Jesus. It’s in His precious name we pray, amen.