Kate was right, when she told me this... I had struggled with the exact same thing for so long when I was younger. Until just about a year and a half ago, I couldn't even begin to wrap my mind around people actually, truly, meaningfully loving God. How could they? They never saw Him, I reasoned, and all they had was a book to tell them what He wanted them to do. I used to lay there in bed for long hours praying in those years..... just simple requests, rambled off. Looking back, many of them were shallow, but some of them held a marked sense of depth. "Please let me meet an atheist, and let me talk to them about apologetics. Let me win them over for you!" "Lord, don't let NCFCA be an idol for me."
I remember staring up at my ceiling, wrestling. "God.... I don't love you. I can't! Please let me love you. Why can't I love you?!?!"
If I was honest, in those years, I didn't truly want to love Him. I didn't even think it was possible to. I was convinced the only lifestyle that kind of existence could hold was one of drudging obedience to a God I couldn't see. "Jesus, I am so in love with you." No one really meant it, did they?
God did. From Exodus, to Matthew, to now, the command has been simple: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." Not just to love, but to love Him with everything. Holding no part of your being back.
34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
-Matthew 22:34-40
For me, these crucial words debunk the common myth of Christianity that Jesus was a new idea in the New Testament, and that the Old Testament is just a list of rules that no longer matters. Jesus' point is clear: this is the commandment. It always has been. It was there in Exodus. It was there in His day. It is here in ours. My God cannot change.
Look at the order of these commands. Love God first, then love your neighbor. Unless we love God, we can never truly love our neighbor to the fullest. It is not until we have been filled with Christ that we can shine His love to those around us. God is the first priority. Looking back, I'm so thankful God never gave me the opportunity to talk to an atheist in those years.... I would never have truly reached them. The battle for a soul is not in the intellect, but in the heart. It comes down to loving that person; the second commandment. But that is impossible to truly fill if we don't love God. Our Christianity rises or falls based on this commandment.
Jesus is the Beloved. Before Him, there was a gap between man and God. The Israelites were on the other side of the veil; they had no open communion with God. But Jesus tore the veil. On this side of the cross, we have a direct relationship with the very Creator of the Universe Himself. He made us; He designed us, and crafted every aspect of our being. He sees every thought, motive, mistake. He knows everything we've done, and everything we've failed to do....... and loves us more deeply than we could even begin to wrap our minds around.
He is perfect, whole, and unchanging. He is not some far-off, strange Deity who doesn't understand our longings. He knows them intimately; He even gave us many of them.
Think about that mental list of things you would want in your future husband. I've been so blessed to be able to talk to many of you about those kinds of things, and it's beautiful to hear all the things you have in mind. We want someone who will hold us, cherish us, and love us regardless of our appearance. Someone who is gentle, but strong; who will love tenderly, and defend firmly.
Have you ever thought about the fact that Jesus fills all of those longings, and more, perfectly? No man can ever love us perfectly.... but He can. The love between man and woman is just a reflection of that greater love, between the heart of God and the hearts of humanity.
There is nothing more beautiful than the moment your heart begins to awaken to His love. When you find that the greatest love of all is being poured out upon you. Individually. "We love, because He first loved us."
All the love we could give Him could never be enough to truly praise Him. The least we can do is give everything to the One who gave everything for us. He is worthy.
I've shared this video in a previous devotional but, even for those of you who have seen it, I would encourage you to watch it again. It's an eleven-minute video, reflecting all that God is as revealed throughout scripture. Watch it when you have time to set all other things aside, and come away with Him, without interruption.
HE IS (The Names of God)
{Click here for a larger view on the Ellerslie website}
He alone is worthy of the love that we can give!! More perspective on the ways He has taught me to love Him, and the awakening to Heavenly affection, next week. :)
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