Choose Love (16 page)

Every word I had said to the women at the conference to describe the way it feels to fall in love perfectly described the way I felt about my granddaughter. And I knew that because she was in my life I would never be the same again.

I told my son and daughter-in-law they should never even think of getting another Mother’s Day present for me again. This one gift will perfectly cover every Mother’s Day from now on. Unless, of course, they were thinking of giving me something similar in the future. When I said that, their eyes glazed over and they made the smallest attempt at a halfhearted smile. It had been too hard getting her here to think about that. They may reconsider in a few years, but even if they don’t, I’m good forever with the way things are.

Feeling this kind of deep, committed love is a glorious way to feel. And that’s the way God wants us to feel about
Him
.
All the time!

Please read the above paragraph again that describes the way it feels to fall in love. Only this time, think of the words as how God wants
you
to feel about
Him
.

All the time!

Identifying Your Greatest Treasure

Jesus said, “
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also
” (Matthew 6:21).

He isn’t saying we can’t have any earthly possessions or we can’t
enjoy what we have. He’s saying we should not be selfishly motivated and materialistic regarding them. Our treasure should not be in what we own so that we are tied to that in a way that keeps us bound to what perishes, as opposed to building up eternal wealth in heaven. Our heart should not be with our possessions but instead with the One who is the source of all we have.

We must identify God in our heart as our greatest treasure
.

Jesus spoke to a crowd of people about a wealthy fool who was rich in this life but did not lay up treasures in heaven. This man said to himself, “ ‘What shall I do, since I have no room to store my crops?’ So he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there I will store all my crops and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ ” (Luke 12:17-20).

Jesus answered this question by saying, “So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:21). He was speaking of people who were more concerned with possessions than with God. When they died, their possessions would be of no use to them, but those who used what they had to glorify God would have a reward in heaven for eternity.

Jesus talked to a rich young ruler who told Him he had kept all the commandments but now wondered what more he should do. Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Matthew 19:21). The rich ruler was saddened by that answer because he had great wealth and he wasn’t about to give it up.

Although honestly acquired wealth is referred to in the Bible as part of God’s blessing, how we handle it reveals our heart and attitude toward it. If we love God, our heart will not serve money but serve Him. That doesn’t mean we can never have anything. It means we don’t put our security in what we have. We put it in the Lord.

The important question:
Where is your greatest treasure?

The answer to that:
It’s where your heart is.

We can’t love God with our whole heart if our heart loves money, possessions, wealth, and riches more than it loves Him.

Ask God to show you where your heart is. The more you know of God, the more your heart will be with
Him
. And the evidence of your great love for Him will be that He is your greatest treasure.

We have to make room in our life for what matters most. When we find our greatest treasure and identify it as such, everything else pales in comparison.

Once I knew I was going to have a granddaughter, I took my daughter’s old room (she is married now) and made it into a baby’s room. When you love someone, you make room in your life for that special person. You do what it takes to please them and show them you value and care about them, and that they are not a burden. In fact, you find you have energy and time for your special person you didn’t think you had before you realized who it is you truly love.

God wants you to make room in your life for
Him
. He wants you to express your love to Him in every way that pleases Him. He will give you energy and time you didn’t know you could have. And not only that, He will help you show your love for Him in ways that not only please Him but will also be for your greatest blessing.

Prayer of Love

L
ORD
, I love who You are and all You have done for me. I love all Your promises to me, and everything You have planned for my future. I am eternally grateful to be an heir of Your kingdom that You have given to those who love You (James 2:5). But even more than all of that, I simply want to love You with all my
heart
,
soul
,
mind,
and
strength
just as You desire (Mark 12:30). Help me to love You with my entire being, without compromise. Teach me how to accomplish that in every way that is pleasing to You.

I don’t want to be like the Pharisees who tried to do everything perfectly—and legalistically—but bypassed the part about loving You (Luke 11:42). I know You see who has true love for You in their heart and who does not (John 5:42). I don’t ever want You to see me offer You lukewarm or halfhearted love where You are concerned. I want to be able to show my adoration and consistently express my love for You in the most heartfelt ways.

Lord, Your Word says that if anyone loves You, that person is known by You (1 Corinthians 8:3). I want to be known by You in great depth, and to know You deeply as well. Help me to be “rooted and grounded in love” so that everything I do reflects my love for You (Ephesians 3:17). Thank You that You loved me long before I ever knew to love You (1 John 4:19). Now I love everything about You. Enable me to walk more closely to You every day so that I can know You more.

In Jesus’ name I pray.

Words of Love

The L
ORD
does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the L
ORD
looks at the heart.

1 S
AMUEL
16:7

We have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

1 J
OHN
4:16

Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

R
OMANS
5:5

We love Him because He first loved us.

1 J
OHN
4:19

He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

1 J
OHN
4:8

9

Live His Way Uncompromisingly

T
ime and again in the Old Testament, God’s people—the Israelites—suffered because they did not love God enough to do what He told them to do. They lost sight of how to live His way. That’s because they did not wholeheartedly love God, so they did not seek His presence. They refused to avoid the things that would compromise their relationship with Him, and they allowed themselves to become separate from Him.

The same is true for us today. We don’t become separate from God unless we
choose
to be.

He
never leaves
us
.

We
leave
Him
.

We do that by living in disobedience to His ways. Our disregard for His laws puts up a barrier between us and Him until we can no longer hear Him speaking to our heart. And He won’t listen to our prayers until we return to Him and take down the barrier. “The L
ORD
’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But
your iniquities have separated you from your God
; and
your sins have hidden His face from you
, so that
He will not hear
” (Isaiah 59:1-2).

It’s not that He cannot hear; it’s that He
will not
hear.

God does not refuse to listen to our prayers because He no longer loves us. It’s because He
does
love us. If we want our prayers answered, we must get sin out of our lives and repent of it. That’s the way it is.

Sin is demonic in its origin. The enemy comes to destroy us by leading us in opposition to God’s ways. In fact, rebellion crouches at the door of our heart and waits for us to fall into deception so separation from God can creep in on us. It’s subtle at first.

Sin often begins as a mere seed of a thought in the mind that is a lie from the enemy of our soul. It’s designed to destroy us. As that thought is entertained by our desires, it grows until it guides our actions.

Too often we hear about a married Christian leader who has an affair outside of marriage. Surely that person chose their profession because they felt called by God and wanted to serve Him, so where did it all go wrong? At some point they allowed a thought into their mind that found a place to dwell in their heart until it became an action. And because of the distance all sin puts between a person and God, the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit to their heart could no longer be heard. Or if it was, there wasn’t enough love for God in their heart to heed it, so it was ignored.

This can happen to anyone when they are blinded by pride to the point they think their needs are above God’s laws. They don’t love God above all else. Or they sort of love Him—but not enough.

The Bible says our sins testify
against us
until we confess them before God.

We separate
ourselves
from God because of our sins, and when we lie to ourselves about it, we are also lying to the Lord. We talk ourselves into believing a lie, such as “What I am doing is not that bad.” “I deserve this.” “This isn’t hurting anyone.” “No one will ever know.” It all starts with a thought that is not born out of love for God and His ways and ends up with a heart that doesn’t recognize who God really is.

The way to stop all this from happening is to love God and love His Word every bit as much.

Remember, Jesus is the living Word.

I have heard people say they can relate to Jesus but not to God. Or to God but not to the Holy Spirit. Whichever it is, that thinking is not right because God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are one. They are inseparable. We don’t divide them up and choose sides. They are the three persons of the one true God. When we don’t really get that, then we can’t receive the fullness of
God’s love
for us because we don’t understand all that God is and all that He does. Nor can we fully show
our love
for God.

Because of my past I was not taught much about the Word of God. In fact, I never heard that term until I was an adult. And I didn’t receive much instruction about life, either. So I had to learn many things the hard way.

I observed good, godly traits and habits in my dad. For example, he was kind and not mean in stark contrast to my mother. He worked hard to support the family in spite of one hardship after another. In one year alone a record blizzard killed his cattle in the winter and a record hailstorm destroyed his crops in the spring, and we were forced to leave our home, but I never heard him complain. He never used foul language. He was not a raging alcoholic or drug user. He was not a womanizer, nor did he ever stray from his home. He taught me good things by his example.

My mother, on the other hand, was irrational and unpredictably violent. During her crazy episodes she used language so foul I have never heard anything as bad to this day. Usually it was directed at me. Today I understand that this was part of her mental illnesses, but not back then. I just thought it was somehow my fault—that my existence provoked her to such extremes. And maybe it did.

We never went to church as a family that I remember. My father avoided it in the same way one would avoid a highly contagious and deadly disease. He told me that once he left his parents’ home he
vowed he would never enter another church as long as he lived. As far as I know he didn’t.