Loving God
A few weeks ago I was reading my friend's blog, and she was raving about her husband. It was really sweet. I left a comment, and something in her reply caught my attention. She told me that she sometimes wondered if she talked about her guy too much, but she just couldn't help it. She just loves him so much, that it just overflows. As Luke 6:45 puts it, “out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” She loves her husband so much, she just can't help letting her praise of him flow from her mouth . . . Or in this case her keyboard.
Some of you are probably thinking, “What in the world does this have to do with loving God?”, As I thought about my friend's words, I wondered, why is it that we, who claim to love God more than anything, get excited about everything, except God. When I talk to my friends, I can ask them their opinion on a controversial issue, and get an opinionated response. Some of them really get into the issues; we can argue it for hours and never get tired. I can ask what their favorite song is, or who their favorite author is and get an enthusiastic response in a heartbeat, but once we start talking about God it gets kind of quiet. A few days ago a couple of DVD's I ordered came in the mail, I was so excited. But when was the last time I got that excited about God? Sadly, I have to admit, it's been awhile. Why? Quite simply, I don't believe we really love God as much as we say we do. Don't get me wrong, I do love God, and I want to know and love Him more, but I'm not near where I should be. Sometime I don't value God the way I should. I don't know Him as well as I want to. If I knew God better, I would get excited about Him. As we get to know God more and more, we can't help getting excited about Him, and who He is.
I believe one of the reasons we don't know God as well as we should is because we don't make Him a priority. Relationships take effort. We can't just expect to sit around ignoring God and magically get to know Him more. A relationship requires time and communication. So many times, we get in a rut, and spend a little time with God each day, and then live our lives “normally” the rest of the time. If we run into problems, we'll remember to ask Him to fix them, but that's not enough! We talk about living for God, and doing everything to glorify Him, but when was the last time we actually DID that? We need to make knowing God a priority. Not just to read a little bit of His Word each day, and pray, but to really seek to KNOW Him, to live each moment constantly aware of His presence. To spend time, reveling in who He is. Not what He does for us, but who He is.
We need to decide, are we going to live for God? Or will we put Him away in a corner after we've done our “devotions” and live for ourselves. If we are going to live for God, we need to put forth the effort. We need to take the time to get to know Him and to “Glory in His Holy Name” The word translated “glory” is halal. It means to show forth, praise, boast in, or rave about. This is the same word used in Jeremiah 9:23-24, “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the LORD” God wants us to glory in who He is . . . To revel in His character. How do we do that? By knowing Him. I find the last phrase of verse 24 very interesting, “in these I delight”. God delights in us when we know Him. This brings God pleasure. How incredible is that? God takes pleasure, in our knowing Him and glorying in Him.
If our goal in life is really to please God, we should start by knowing Him. That brings Him delight, and isn't it good of Him to command and take delight in that which will satisfy us the most? There is something exceptionally satisfying in knowing God, and thinking about who He is; to be able to have a relationship with Him. All I can do is stand back, and say, WOW! What an incredibly kind, loving, wonderful Savior. God is so good!
Last Wednesday we sang a song written by my youth pastor. The chorus really got my attention. “There's no place I'd rather be than at the feet of my King worshipping.” There are so many times that I put things ahead of God, and don't give Him the priority that I should, but I'm praying that He will teach me to love sitting at His feet more than I do now. I want to be able to sing “There's no place I'd rather be than at the feet of my King worshiping” and mean it with all my heart.
Some of you are probably thinking, “What in the world does this have to do with loving God?”, As I thought about my friend's words, I wondered, why is it that we, who claim to love God more than anything, get excited about everything, except God. When I talk to my friends, I can ask them their opinion on a controversial issue, and get an opinionated response. Some of them really get into the issues; we can argue it for hours and never get tired. I can ask what their favorite song is, or who their favorite author is and get an enthusiastic response in a heartbeat, but once we start talking about God it gets kind of quiet. A few days ago a couple of DVD's I ordered came in the mail, I was so excited. But when was the last time I got that excited about God? Sadly, I have to admit, it's been awhile. Why? Quite simply, I don't believe we really love God as much as we say we do. Don't get me wrong, I do love God, and I want to know and love Him more, but I'm not near where I should be. Sometime I don't value God the way I should. I don't know Him as well as I want to. If I knew God better, I would get excited about Him. As we get to know God more and more, we can't help getting excited about Him, and who He is.
I believe one of the reasons we don't know God as well as we should is because we don't make Him a priority. Relationships take effort. We can't just expect to sit around ignoring God and magically get to know Him more. A relationship requires time and communication. So many times, we get in a rut, and spend a little time with God each day, and then live our lives “normally” the rest of the time. If we run into problems, we'll remember to ask Him to fix them, but that's not enough! We talk about living for God, and doing everything to glorify Him, but when was the last time we actually DID that? We need to make knowing God a priority. Not just to read a little bit of His Word each day, and pray, but to really seek to KNOW Him, to live each moment constantly aware of His presence. To spend time, reveling in who He is. Not what He does for us, but who He is.
We need to decide, are we going to live for God? Or will we put Him away in a corner after we've done our “devotions” and live for ourselves. If we are going to live for God, we need to put forth the effort. We need to take the time to get to know Him and to “Glory in His Holy Name” The word translated “glory” is halal. It means to show forth, praise, boast in, or rave about. This is the same word used in Jeremiah 9:23-24, “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the LORD” God wants us to glory in who He is . . . To revel in His character. How do we do that? By knowing Him. I find the last phrase of verse 24 very interesting, “in these I delight”. God delights in us when we know Him. This brings God pleasure. How incredible is that? God takes pleasure, in our knowing Him and glorying in Him.
If our goal in life is really to please God, we should start by knowing Him. That brings Him delight, and isn't it good of Him to command and take delight in that which will satisfy us the most? There is something exceptionally satisfying in knowing God, and thinking about who He is; to be able to have a relationship with Him. All I can do is stand back, and say, WOW! What an incredibly kind, loving, wonderful Savior. God is so good!
Last Wednesday we sang a song written by my youth pastor. The chorus really got my attention. “There's no place I'd rather be than at the feet of my King worshipping.” There are so many times that I put things ahead of God, and don't give Him the priority that I should, but I'm praying that He will teach me to love sitting at His feet more than I do now. I want to be able to sing “There's no place I'd rather be than at the feet of my King worshiping” and mean it with all my heart.
