I often write about God's Love and for good reason. I have found in Him a Love that will not let me go. A Love that will not fail and is always faithful. The disciple John described himself as the one that Jesus loved and I can identify with that. God is Love (1 John 4:8). Because He is Love, he sent His Son, Jesus, to die for us on the cross at Calvary (John 3:16). I have found that Love is the Way. Love is the Truth and therefore it produces the Life. The life that I live is to be characterized by this Love. In other words, if I know Love, then my life should look like I know this Love. That I should be driven by this Love, to reproduce this Love through my life and the things that I do for Him. If my life, the things that I do everyday, are not done because of this Love, then I have the wrong motivation.
But you, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. Psalm 86:15 NLT
Sometimes there is a failure to recognize God as being a God of Love and Mercy. We can easily look around us at the pain and suffering in the world. The current events can be enough to make us believe that God could be anything other than Love. Failure to properly understand the world and it's circumstances, our lives and the consequences of our choices, can lead us to believe anything other than that He wants the best for us. But this is because we do not recognize that He is the best for us. That doing life His way is our best option. This has been the struggle since the beginning of time. To recognize Him as Love and that Love wants to see the greatest good take place in our lives. We can only understand this as we cling to Him.
Another reason we fail to see Him as Love, is our problem with authority. We just don't like it. We don't like being told what to do. We don't like that there are penalties for disobedience and breaking laws. When authority has been harsh to us, we can easily assume that all authority is the same. That they just want to be obeyed. Whether it's our parents, our bosses, the police officer that pulls us over, we feel that they are doing it only to punish us and not for our own good. Certainly it is hard to view this kind of authority as being motivated by love for us. But the Creator of time is not bound to our understanding, we are bound to His. And in His word, He reveals His understanding to us. As parents, we understand this better. We know that we want the best for our children and sometimes this involves punishment for doing wrong. This should help us grasp the concept of God's Unconditional Love for us. He wants the best for us, whether we choose it or not, and has to punish sin. Which He did by having His One and Only Son to die for us on the cross. There are still consequences for these wrong actions that we do, the concept of reaping what we sow. But even in this, He can work and bring the best possible results from our terrible predicaments.
So at the heart of the matter, we are motivated by His Love for us to choose wisely and do good works based on His first loving us. When we truly come to understand this, when we become fully aware of His Love and what that means for us; we will be an overflow of His Love into this world. A heart filled with His Love will attempt great things for God. A heart fully aware of His Love, will empty itself of everything opposed to His will. It will also willfully give itself to His Love and will become an instrument of that Love; to be used for His purposes to accomplish His will in this world. And that is our motivation as believers.
Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning. 2 John 1: 6 NLT
But you, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness. Psalm 86:15 NLT
Sometimes there is a failure to recognize God as being a God of Love and Mercy. We can easily look around us at the pain and suffering in the world. The current events can be enough to make us believe that God could be anything other than Love. Failure to properly understand the world and it's circumstances, our lives and the consequences of our choices, can lead us to believe anything other than that He wants the best for us. But this is because we do not recognize that He is the best for us. That doing life His way is our best option. This has been the struggle since the beginning of time. To recognize Him as Love and that Love wants to see the greatest good take place in our lives. We can only understand this as we cling to Him.
Another reason we fail to see Him as Love, is our problem with authority. We just don't like it. We don't like being told what to do. We don't like that there are penalties for disobedience and breaking laws. When authority has been harsh to us, we can easily assume that all authority is the same. That they just want to be obeyed. Whether it's our parents, our bosses, the police officer that pulls us over, we feel that they are doing it only to punish us and not for our own good. Certainly it is hard to view this kind of authority as being motivated by love for us. But the Creator of time is not bound to our understanding, we are bound to His. And in His word, He reveals His understanding to us. As parents, we understand this better. We know that we want the best for our children and sometimes this involves punishment for doing wrong. This should help us grasp the concept of God's Unconditional Love for us. He wants the best for us, whether we choose it or not, and has to punish sin. Which He did by having His One and Only Son to die for us on the cross. There are still consequences for these wrong actions that we do, the concept of reaping what we sow. But even in this, He can work and bring the best possible results from our terrible predicaments.
So at the heart of the matter, we are motivated by His Love for us to choose wisely and do good works based on His first loving us. When we truly come to understand this, when we become fully aware of His Love and what that means for us; we will be an overflow of His Love into this world. A heart filled with His Love will attempt great things for God. A heart fully aware of His Love, will empty itself of everything opposed to His will. It will also willfully give itself to His Love and will become an instrument of that Love; to be used for His purposes to accomplish His will in this world. And that is our motivation as believers.
Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning. 2 John 1: 6 NLT
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