I wrote this as a follow up to "The Greatest Commandment" back on 10/18/09, but was unable to post it... Here it is now..may it challenge and encourage you!
Last time I blogged, I spoke on the greatest commandment, and how we can sometimes lose sight of our chief end, to love God. But, what does it mean; what does it look like?
This has been something that I have been discovering anew this week. Our relationship with Him must be first and foremost. We say that but do we make a conscious decision to actually do it? It has a bit of hard time for me being away from my family and friends at college, but it is helping me grow in my love toward God. My love for Him is, and should be, greater than my love for anyone else. Just as I want to honor, cherish and protect my future wife to the best of my ability, even more so do I need to love God and seek to honor Him and obey Him.
Our relationship with Christ must come first! If we want to truly love others we need to first love Him. "8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son[b] into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for[c] our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. " (1 John 4:8-12, NIV)
God loves us sooo much. How can we not love Him in return?
In Mark 12:30, we are told to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Let's take a look at this. Like I mentioned last time, that means to love God with every fiber of your being. We need to adopt this attitude! Every action we do need to bring Him glory and honor. Even our thoughts should be honoring Him! We need to take this seriously!
Marriage is intended to be a picture of our relationship with God. That kind of love and devotion we need to have even moreso for our King. I am keeping myself pure for my future wife and am devoted to her and our relationship; how much more so do we need to in our relationship with God? God doesn't want merely an abstinent bride; He wants one who is pure, set-apart. That kind of love, devotion, and commitment we need to have and more for God.
This past week, I have found myself falling even more deeper in love with God and it is amazing. When you seek to be intimate with your King, spending precious time with Him, seeking to honor Him in everything, it is so amazing, and fills you with such joy! We need to spend more time loving our King. If we truly love Him, we will be able to fully serve Him and be effective for Him. I can attest that it is rewarding to pursue Christ. This is the Poet part of being a Warrior Poet. We need to cultivate our relationship with our King.
However, the Warrior side also play into this. We need to guard our precious relationship with our King. Satan will try and distract you, draw you away, try get you to love the world (1 John 2:15). We need to guard against this, seeking our King in everything. Satan will try and do what ever he can to draw you away. We can get caught up over disputable matters or issues like I shared about last time.
This is the essence if being a Warrior Poet: Cultivating our precious relationship with our King, loving Him with all our being, and protecting that relationship, guarding against the attacks of Satan, and fighting our King's battles, motivated and driven out of love for Him. Who will join me in loving our great God with everything that we are?
This has been something that I have been discovering anew this week. Our relationship with Him must be first and foremost. We say that but do we make a conscious decision to actually do it? It has a bit of hard time for me being away from my family and friends at college, but it is helping me grow in my love toward God. My love for Him is, and should be, greater than my love for anyone else. Just as I want to honor, cherish and protect my future wife to the best of my ability, even more so do I need to love God and seek to honor Him and obey Him.
Our relationship with Christ must come first! If we want to truly love others we need to first love Him. "8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son[b] into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for[c] our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. " (1 John 4:8-12, NIV)
God loves us sooo much. How can we not love Him in return?
In Mark 12:30, we are told to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Let's take a look at this. Like I mentioned last time, that means to love God with every fiber of your being. We need to adopt this attitude! Every action we do need to bring Him glory and honor. Even our thoughts should be honoring Him! We need to take this seriously!
Marriage is intended to be a picture of our relationship with God. That kind of love and devotion we need to have even moreso for our King. I am keeping myself pure for my future wife and am devoted to her and our relationship; how much more so do we need to in our relationship with God? God doesn't want merely an abstinent bride; He wants one who is pure, set-apart. That kind of love, devotion, and commitment we need to have and more for God.
This past week, I have found myself falling even more deeper in love with God and it is amazing. When you seek to be intimate with your King, spending precious time with Him, seeking to honor Him in everything, it is so amazing, and fills you with such joy! We need to spend more time loving our King. If we truly love Him, we will be able to fully serve Him and be effective for Him. I can attest that it is rewarding to pursue Christ. This is the Poet part of being a Warrior Poet. We need to cultivate our relationship with our King.
However, the Warrior side also play into this. We need to guard our precious relationship with our King. Satan will try and distract you, draw you away, try get you to love the world (1 John 2:15). We need to guard against this, seeking our King in everything. Satan will try and do what ever he can to draw you away. We can get caught up over disputable matters or issues like I shared about last time.
This is the essence if being a Warrior Poet: Cultivating our precious relationship with our King, loving Him with all our being, and protecting that relationship, guarding against the attacks of Satan, and fighting our King's battles, motivated and driven out of love for Him. Who will join me in loving our great God with everything that we are?
For Christ's Glory!
