Are You In Love With Me Or Just The Idea Of Me?
John 2:4-6 Amplified Bible (AMP)
4Whoever says, I know Him [I perceive, recognize, understand, and am acquainted with Him] but fails to keep and obey His commandments (teachings) is a liar, and the Truth [of the Gospel] is not in him. 5But he who keeps (treasures) His Word [who bears in mind His precepts, who observes His message in its entirety], truly in him has the love of and for God been perfected (completed, reached maturity). By this we may perceive (know, recognize, and be sure) that we are in Him: 6Whoever says he abides in Him ought [as a personal debt] to walk and conduct himself in the same way in which He walked and conducted Himself.
Yesterday in church as our Bishop ministered to us in His always submitted to God and phenomenal way, he said something in one of his four points that stuck with me and I chewed on all through the night and into today, which was that “some of us just love the presence of God, but we don’t really love God.” As I pondered this very statement, I began to look into the scriptures to find out what identifies our love for God. I knew some things, that I had studied, read and been taught, but was I missing something? What separated those who just loved the shakes, quakes and quivers of the presence of GOD, the warm fuzzies and the tears, the running around the church, or the shouting to actually loving who God is and what He stands for? I began to really understand that the differences are not just in what we say, they are in how we live, and the choices we make. It made me think of a song I use to love by Brownstone, “If You Love Me,” the first verse says, “I don't wanna rain on this parade…But I'm starting to question the love that was made…I'm not looking for just an affair
I want a love that is based on truth not just dare.”
I want a love that is based on truth not just dare.”
What is the first thing most of us do when we wake up? Most of us would say we either roll over and look for a spouse, go check on the children, go to the rest room, or turn off the alarm clock or roll over and try to convince our bodies to let us sleep a little bit longer. Proverbs 8:17 says, “I love those who love me, and those who seek me early and diligently shall find me.” Is our first thought of God and the fact that it was He that allowed us to see another day, or the ache in our knee or the laundry list of things we have to do in a day? When we love God our first thought should be of Him, or the love we have for Him, enough to say thank you, or to tell Him how much we love Him or how great He is. John 14:15 says “If you love Me you will keep My commands.” Hmmm does that mean when we are not keeping His commands and we are choosing to live in a manner that is contrary to what God commands that we are showing God how much we really don’t love Him? I think that is what it is say, a matter a fact I know it is. We take the word of God so lightly and we make it a suggestion, instead of a book of rules, commands and laws that we are supposed to live by and choose. Just because we rob a bank and don’t get caught never makes it less of a crime or any less wrong to do. It still shows our distaste and disregard for the laws of the land that are supposed to govern us. Just as when we choose to not keep God’s commands it says the same things, and I have to say that I have never met or seen anyone that can claim to love and hold someone or something in low regard and have distaste for them.
When we chose the word, and to live by the word and to study the word and search it, and even treat people according what is written in the word, we are showing forth how much we love God. We are not just supposed to show up at church and have a great time and feel the move of the Spirit of God and go home unchanged, doing things the same way, acting out in the same behaviors and treating people in the same way. The Word of God is sharper than any two edged sword piercing bone from marrow, but it will never do that if we are not close enough to God and drawing close to Him so that His sword can hit us and divide and separate and get rid of the things in us we do not need. If we love something or someone we seek after it or them. Okay so tell me, how much seeking after God are we doing? Are we getting close to Him, to the point where we crave Him and His air, where we want to know Him and get close enough to always be in right relationship with Him? Or is that we just like being around Him and claiming we know Him? Are we a real ride or die or just associate that will cut and run at the first sign that something is required of us?
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