Can you imagine what it would be like never to get stressed-out or to worry because you are so filled with the peace and love of God?
This isn’t a very popular idea in the American church, where we separate our love for God from our service to God. We say we love God most, but it’s a vague statement that yields little action.
If someone asked you what the greatest good on this earth is, what would you say? An epic surf session? Financial security? Health? Meaningful, trusting friendships? Intimacy with your spouse? Knowing that you belong? The greatest good on this earth is God. Period. God’s one goal for us is Himself.
As we love more genuinely and deeply, giving becomes the obvious and natural response.
Before you say one word to God, take a minute and imagine what it would be like to stand before His throne as you pray.
How would my life change if I actually thought of each person I came into contact with as Christ – the person driving painfully slow in front of me, the checker at the grocery store who seems more interested in chatting than ringing up my items, the member of my own family with whom I can’t seem to have a conversation and not get annoyed?
There are times when the most loving thing we can do is teach people that joy will come only when they stop screaming for attention and save their voices for the throne.
The core problem isn’t the fact that we’re lukewarm, halfhearted, or stagnant Christians. The crux of it all is why we are this way, and it is because we have an inaccurate view of God.
Voices are plentiful; followers are not. Strong opinions are applauded; humility is not.
If I could read a manuscript of your prayers over the past month, what would I see as the “one thing” you repeatedly ask for? Actually answer that. Our prayers reveal a lot about us. Our requests show us what we treasure, and our tone reveals our opinion of Him.
Oswald Chambers writes, “Never make a principle out of your experience; let God be as original with other people as He is with you.
A quote I heard recently: “We are God’s plan to make it believable that He is good and loving and true.” God has always chosen to reveal Himself through people.
Find all of your security and worth in being a child of God, a member of Christ’s body.
Jesus came humbly as a servant, but He never begs us to give Him some small part of ourselves. He commands everything from His followers.
Many pastors expect their members to sit under their teachings till they die rather than training them to leave and shepherd others. Paul was clear that church leaders are to equip the saints for work. Hugh Halter sees this as a trap we build for ourselves: “Many vocational ministers are stuck doing the work of ministry because they take a paycheck from consumer Christians who fail to see the full scope of their calling.”1.
O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
This is why self-deprecation is as wicked as slandering God’s Church.
Do you love this God who is everything, or do you just love everything He gives you? Do you really know and believe that God loves you, individually and personally and intimately?
In our impatient culture, we want to experience biblical awe without biblical devotion.
Nowhere in Scripture do I see a “balanced life with a little bit of God added in” as an ideal for us to emulate. Yet when I look at our churches, this is exactly what I see: a lot of people who have added Jesus to their lives.