Skip to main content

Why Do You Love God?

             When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:3)

            The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

             We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (II Corinthians 10:5)

             Spiritual Hypochondriacs, raise your hands. I’m reading a book called Bold Love by Dan Allender, and much of what I’ve read so far has focused on how bad we are at loving – and he’s right. But that may be the reason for my thoughts last night. Or, I  may be being attacked spiritually, attacking myself (which isn’t unusual), or God may reveal something I need to recognize. But no matter the reason, it’s a thought worth considering.

            Why do you love God? Do you want to love God more or better? Why? If you want to be good, righteous, kind, loving, compassionate, gracious, humble, or (name that positive thing), why do you want to be those things?

            While praying last night, I mentioned wanting to love God more or better, and slammed into that question. “Why?”

            My answer was that if I loved God the way I should love God, then God would find me acceptable. I could “hold my head up” and meet with Him as equals. Now, put aside the ridiculous possibility that we could ever hold our heads up and meet with God as equals. Focus more deeply on the motivation behind the idea. The goal is to love well enough – do enough work of the sort we call “loving” – that I would be acceptable to God. It’s not because He’s God, worthy, loving, perfect, beautiful, etc., though He is all those things and more.  He’s not the focus. I am.

            None of us are as good at loving God or each other as we should be, and even if we are as good at loving God as we should be for one second, we aren’t every second. If you don’t like your answer to why you love God or how you love God, pray to love Him more and better, even if your reasons are bad. As He answers the prayer and you grow to love Him more and better, your motives will change.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Saved?

  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” (John 10:28-30) “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ ” (Matthew 7:21-23) Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written: “So that you may be proved right when you speak and prevail when you judge.” (Romans 3:4)   What conclusion do you draw when someone who was raised in a Christian family and church, perhaps even playing a significant role in a chur...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Virgin?

           Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)           This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 1:18)           But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”            “How will this be,” Mary asked the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Meditations of the Heart

  May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm19:14)           As I started writing this post, I noted that the meditations of my heart are all over the mental landscape, from a hub where eight superhighways come together to a lunar or nuclear landscape. Do you see my error? The moment I read the word meditation , I think about thoughts. But what’s described here is the meditations of our hearts ; our wills.           While the meditations of our minds may be all over the place, the meditations of our wills tend to be a little more stable by the time we are adults. We no longer tend to want to pursue the ten separate careers we did in any given day as children. Part of this is humble acceptance of reality. We come to understand that we can’t do it all. I think another part of it is disappointmen...
Post a Comment
Read more