God is relational. The entire purpose for God creating us is to have an intimate relationship with each of us. God desires to know us. Enjoy us. Chat with us. And, love us. No matter how flawed we are; God doesn’t give up on any of us. He is always rooting us on to live right, speak right, and love right.
God has given us
abilities to control the most dangerous of creatures, yet we struggle with
keeping our tongue in control. James 3:7-8 declares that, “Men have trained, or can train,
every kind of animal or bird that lives and every kind of reptile and fish, but
no human being can tame the tongue. It is always ready to pour out its deadly
poison.” (TLB) God has enabled us to be creative and
gifted, yet we are the most violent, unkind and mean of all that live on the
earth. Genesis 6:5 points out that, “God saw that human evil was out of
control. People thought evil, imagined evil—evil, evil, evil from morning to
night.” (MSG) Although we are reckless and arrogant and
disobedient, God still wants a relationship with us.
How can I love God completely? For starters, Jesus said “you
must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all
your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” Loving God
completely takes a willingness to know him.
The Apostle Paul prayed for the Philippi Christians that their love
would overflow and they keep on growing in their knowledge and
understanding. The more we know about
God, the more we fall deeper in love with him.
The Apostle Paul also prayed for the believers in Colossae that they
would keep on growing in the knowledge of God.
It is very important to understand
that Christianity isn’t a religion of rules and regulations, rather, it is a
relationship one has with the entire God family – God, Jesus and Spirit. When Christianity is viewed as relational, it
will inspire us to want to know more about the one who made our life possible. We will want to spend the time in
conversation with God and we will want to read his love book of grace and hope
and mercy. We will want to spend time in
quietness to clear
our mind so that we can focus on our relationship with God.
I will love
God completely when I trust him. God is
in the relationship to make our lives better.
He will never lie to us, cheat on us or break up with us. He is in it for the long haul. Romans 5:8 says that God demonstrated his love for
us. John
3:16 proclaims that God loves us so much he gave us his only Son. 1st
John 4:9 tells us that, “God showed how much he loved us by
sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life
through him.” (NLT) We can fully trust God that when he says he
loves us, he means it. He is a gift
giver and a God of making sacrifices for all of us, all of the time. It is much easier to love God when we know
that he loves us. 1 John 1:19 says that we love because God first loved us.
I will love God completely when I
surrender to him. James 4:7 says to submit to God.
Galatians 2:20 says that “my old
self has been crucified with Christ, It is no longer I who live, but Christ
lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who
loved me and gave himself for me.”(NLT)
Surrendering to God demonstrates love and respect and a willingness to
follow his plans so our love for him is completely honorable, with no hidden
motives.
Remember, Be God Controlled!
Brian