LOVE GOD SUPREMELY!

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 4, 2019.

SUBJECT: LOVE GOD SUPREMELY!

Memory verse: "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved of My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.

"

 (John 14 vs 21.)

READ: John 14 vs 23 - 24:

14:23: Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
14:24: He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me.

INTIMATION:

Love is the characteristic word of Christianity. It describes the attitude of God toward His Son (John 17 vs 26), the human race (John 3 vs 16), and to such as believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (John 14 vs 21). Love also, expresses the essential nature of God (First John 4 vs 8), it conveys His will to His children concerning their attitude one to another (John 13 vs 35), and toward all men (First Thessalonians 3 vs 12; Second Peter 1 vs 7). Christian love has God for its primary object, and expresses itself first of all in implicit obedience to His commandments. Therefore, self-will, that is, self-pleasing is the negation of love to God.

Jesus said that His followers show their love for Him by obeying Him. Keeping God's commandments is the true demonstration of your love for Him. When you love God, you keep His commandments, and Jesus reciprocates by manifesting Himself in you. An intimate relationship is what God desires from you. It's the most outstanding truth in the universe—that our Creator wants to fellowship with us. 

God is love, and He made us to love us, hence He created us in His own image and after His likeness. He longs for us to love Him back. In Hosea 6 vs 6, God says, "For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings."

God says, I don't want you rituals (sacrifice); I want your love. I don't want your offerings; I want you to know Me." God deeply loves us and desires our love in return. He longs for us to know Him and spend time with Him. This is why learning to love God and be loved by Him should be the greatest objective of your life. Nothing else comes close in importance. Jesus called this the greatest commandment (Matthew 22 vs 37 - 38).

Loving God supremely puts us in an enviable position of being in partnership with Him—the Father and the Son making their home with you. I can envisage the triumphant life of such a person; who lives with Him whom nothing is difficult or impossible with, and the Owner of the whole universe and everything in it! Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11 vs 28 - 30). 

Speaking figuratively, Jesus used a yoke, a heavy wooden harness that fits over the shoulders of an ox or oxen. It is attached to a piece of equipment the oxen are to pull. A person’s heavy burdens may be sin, oppression, persecution, unfavorable life’s circumstances, or even weariness in the search for God. Jesus frees people from all these burdens when you are in partnership with Him. The yoke is shared with Him, with weight falling on His bigger shoulders than yours. He has more pulling power, and is up front helping. Consequently, you are participating in life’s responsibilities with a great Partner, and now that frown can turn into smile, and that gripe into a song.

Jesus doesn’t offer a life of luxurious ease—the yoke is still an oxen’s tool for working hard. But you are assured of His winning power and support at all times in your life’s travails. The rest that Jesus promises is love, healing, and peace with God, not the end of all labor. A relationship with God changes meaningless, wearisome toil into spiritual productivity and purpose.

Love is more than lovely words; it is commitment and conduct. If you love Christ, then prove it by obeying what he says in His Word. Jesus never promised that obeying Him would be easy. But the hard work and self-discipline of serving Christ is no burden to those who love Him. And if the load starts to feel heavy, we can always trust Christ to help us bear it. 

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the spirit of love and obedience to you, I. Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!