LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOUR BEING!

Hello [subscriber:firstname | default:Beloved],

Last week, I spoke to you about love as the ultimate weapon in these times of the end and I put special emphasis on the love of your neighbor. But in my exhortation today, I would like to dwell on your love for God. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind”, says the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 22:37.

I would like to ask you some questions. Do you really love the Lord? If by some extraordinary event, you learned that angels had come down from heaven to announce the non-existence of hell or that there will be no more hell, no matter how long you live on earth, would you still be a Christian? Would you continue to walk in sanctification and in God’s ways? Would you continue to attend church diligently? If your answer is yes, glory to the Lord! But if your answer is no, then know that you need to reconsider your love and intimacy with the Lord. In the beginning of my faith, I prayed to God because I was afraid of going to hell if I didn’t walk in His ways.  But Glory be to God because He has changed me!

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love”, says the Bible in 1 John 4:18. God cherishes you and wants you to love Him with all your heart. He wants you to cling to Him, not out of fear of going to hell nor interest, but out of love.

A woman does not live with her husband out of fear of getting divorced one day, but rather because she loves him. A good wife does not cling to her husband for what he gives her as material goods. She does it out of love. As members of the Church and the Body of Christ, we must attain, in our Christian faith, the dimension of the Bride of Christ, that Bride who loves the Lord, not out of fear of losing His soul in the flames of hell nor out of self-interest.  We must do so because we love Him with all our heart. Christ is coming back soon and He will come to take His Bride, the Church that we are (Revelation 19:7; Ephesians 5:25).

It is not in vain that the Bible calls Christians adulterers, not worldly people, who, instead of being intimate with the Lord, are friends of the world and make themselves enemies of God (James 4:4). The word “adultery” refers to the breaking of the bonds of marriage. Those who truly love the Lord walk as the Bride of Christ. They have renounced the love of the world, the life of sin and iniquity (lying, fornication, adultery, corruption, theft, cheating, jealousy, pride, wickedness, etc.). They keep His commandments. “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously” (James 4:5b). Yes, Beloved, God is jealous when we are passionate about something else other than Him. Like a husband who would like to have the full attention of his wife (and vice versa), so God loves you and wants you to focus your life on Him. Your passions turn you away from Him. Whatever you put before Him takes you away from Him and prevents Him from answering you. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures”, says James 4:3, just before calling adulterers Christians that love the world and the things of this world.

If all you are interested in in your relationship with God is the desire for a child, marriage, a job, funding, a trip, etc., then your love for God is limited. God wants you to love Him, not for what He does for you, but for who He is. “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and make myself known to him”, says the Lord in John 14:21. Christ will reveal Himself to You if you love Him with all your heart. Love Him with all your heart. Find your pleasure in Him and His word, become intimate with Christ, make Him your delight, and He will give you what your heart’s desires.

May God bless you !