TO LOVE GOD

 

There are many possible ways to answer the question, “How do I love God?” The first that should come to mind are the many verses claiming that we love Him by keeping His Word:

 

·       Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.” (John 14:23-24)

 

I want to address a different aspect of loving God. Some lament that although they do love God in terms of abiding in His Word, they do it without passion.

 

There were many reasons for me to be dispassionate. I didn’t feel like I was like other Christians. I was even jealous of them. They seemed to belong to the in-crowd, and I didn’t. They also seemed to be comfortable with their faith, while my faith never seemed to fit right, like a ballerina’s tights.

 

I was jealous of their comfort. While they seemed to accept the teachings with ease, I struggled. To bring them down to where I was, I’d ask them difficult questions like, “How do you know…”

 

This didn’t build fellowship. Instead, it just heightened my me-against-them feelings of alienation and brokenness.

 

Later, I began to see that Jesus had also been an outsider. He had humbled Himself to be born in the most debased manner - in a smelly fly-infested animal cave. His parents didn’t even have any clothing for Him, so they wrapped Him with the only thing available - strips of cloth shepherds used to wrap sacrificial animals prevent any bruise or fault until their sacrificial offering at the Temple, These were signs that Jesus had come for the lowest and most contemptible of people, even for me!

 

Neither was His life one of joy:

 

·       For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:2-3)

 

Then, He left us, not as a conquering hero, as those we admire, but in the most contemptible way. I began to realize that He is the Savior for even people like me, the One who had proved His love for me (Romans 5:8-10).

 

I had much to learn about this unlikely Savior. Would He accept me as I was? The more I tried the prove that I was worthy of His love, the more I saw my unworthiness. I was being stripped of the little pride I still had left - assured that if Jesus did save me, He did so reluctantly. I had never felt loved by anyone, and now this feeling of my unlovable-ness seemed to overflow from my Savior. How could I believe that He loved me if I despised myself? Without the assurance of His love, I also despised Him, even though I could hardly  admit this to myself.

 

What changed? The Gospel gradually began to reassure me that He loved me:

 

·       For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

 

Through the leading of the Spirit, through His Words, the pieces began to fall together. I began to understand God and His love for me. Paul had prayed that we would come to:

 

·       … know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:19)

 

To be filled with this knowledge is to be filled with God’s fullness. No wonder we are instructed to meditate on His Word, day and night (Psalm 1:1-3), which will transform us:

 

·       Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

 

To know His will is to know our Lord and how much we are beloved. It is this knowledge that has transformed many struggling Christians into powerful men and women of God, even though we might have to exercise patience.