CAREFULLY DIRECTED LOVE!

CAREFULLY DIRECTED LOVE!

Be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God. —Joshua 23:11

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYV0ce3ybEA

            The greatest command that we have from our Lord is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38).    So if this is the greatest command we would do well to pay attention to it. Obedience to our Lord God shows our love for Him— “In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome” (I John 5:3). “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love” (II John 1:6).   “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me” (John 14:21). Yes, “Be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God.” 

But this love is not a legalistic checklist of commands to obey. This love is an understanding that He has our very best interests in mind. This love comes out of a relationship of understanding of how much He loves us! “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command” (John 15:13-14). This love for God understands how the Creator of all things laid down His life for us at the cross to take the penalty and punishment for our sin and then we “We love because he first loved us” (I John 4:19).

            We need to be very careful to “to love the Lord.” There are many distractions that scream for our attention and seek to cool our love for Him. We are in a spiritual battle and the enemy seeks to use whatever scheme to take our eyes of our Lord as the priority relationship. Paul said he was not ignorant of Satan’s schemes (II Corinthians 2:11). May we also have an understanding of Satan’s scheming decoys that would draw our love to another.

            Are you and I being careful to love our Lord? Disobedience is not loving Him. If we are knowingly disobeying Him then we are not loving Him and our love is being directed to someone or something as first priority. Yes, let us be CAREFUL to love the Lord our God.

Dear Father I do love You and seek to be faithful to Your desires. May I do so in the power of Your Holy Spirit and in the authority of Jesus. So be it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGLwJNYu7q8