Be Careful to Love the Lord
It seems unusual that the Bible would have to remind us so many times and so many ways to love the Lord, until we stop to think about love. It is fairly easy to stop loving another person or the Lord and not to realize what is happening. That is why God told Joshua to strongly warn the children of Israel about loving the Lord one more time before he died.(Joshua 23:11)
Love is a verb. It is something we do, not a feeling. In order to stay "in love" with someone, we must decide each day to love them by doing the right things. If we do the right things, we will have a strong feeling that comes with love, but if we stop doing the right things, the feeling will fade, until it is almost gone. This is true for loving people and for loving the Lord. Therefore, we must be careful not to stop loving the Lord in our actions, or soon we will not love the Lord in our hearts.
It is clear that in order we love the Lord, we will put Him first in everything. He will get the first part of our time, talents, and money. We will keep His commandments, because we put Him first, and we want to please Him. Our love actions lead us to know Him more and more experientially, so that we want to spend more time with Him and talk to Him all day long. We want to read His love letters to us, the Bible, more and more, so we can glean insights into His love for us. Nothing we do means anything compared to our love for the Lord.
Of course, we can apply this truth to the love we have for our spouse. We put them first, when it comes to all other human relationships, even the children. We do what they want us to do, because we want to please them and bring them happiness. We spend time communicating, so we glean more and more about the one who loves us. We have no other relationships that come close to our love relationship with our spouse, when it comes to human relationships. Then, keeping God's priorities, we apply this truth to all of the people we love, always being careful to love the Lord supremely.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Joshua 24 and Judges 1-2.
Love is a verb. It is something we do, not a feeling. In order to stay "in love" with someone, we must decide each day to love them by doing the right things. If we do the right things, we will have a strong feeling that comes with love, but if we stop doing the right things, the feeling will fade, until it is almost gone. This is true for loving people and for loving the Lord. Therefore, we must be careful not to stop loving the Lord in our actions, or soon we will not love the Lord in our hearts.
It is clear that in order we love the Lord, we will put Him first in everything. He will get the first part of our time, talents, and money. We will keep His commandments, because we put Him first, and we want to please Him. Our love actions lead us to know Him more and more experientially, so that we want to spend more time with Him and talk to Him all day long. We want to read His love letters to us, the Bible, more and more, so we can glean insights into His love for us. Nothing we do means anything compared to our love for the Lord.
Of course, we can apply this truth to the love we have for our spouse. We put them first, when it comes to all other human relationships, even the children. We do what they want us to do, because we want to please them and bring them happiness. We spend time communicating, so we glean more and more about the one who loves us. We have no other relationships that come close to our love relationship with our spouse, when it comes to human relationships. Then, keeping God's priorities, we apply this truth to all of the people we love, always being careful to love the Lord supremely.
Tomorrow, I intend to read Joshua 24 and Judges 1-2.