The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"For Love"
Part 6 - Love and Sincerity
What does it mean to walk with God and serve Him based on the free gift of His grace in the Lord Jesus Christ, and our determination to love Him with sincere devotion rather than mere obligation?
"We love Him because He first loved us" (I John 4:19).
Realizing the responsive nature of our love for God goes far in motivating and empowering genuineness and reality. Because only God "is love," only He can love from the fount and source of His own nature and being (I John 4:16; emphasis added). All others must derive from Him the presence, motivation, and power to walk in the unselfish dedication to others that constitutes God's loving nature - "Charity (love) seeketh not her own" (I Corinthians 13:5). Our determination to love must be accompanied by our humble realization that the Holy Spirit must lead and enable us in unselfish devotion to God and others.
"The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5).
We frequently quote in these messages King David's dual expression: "I will love Thee, o Lord my strength!" (Psalm 18:1). Note the commitment - "I will love Thee" - but note also the realization of need for God's enabling to love - "o Lord. My strength." Brilliant! Of course! And powerful in illuminating our hearts regarding our own determination, the fulfillment of which can only be realized by God's provision of grace and our reception by faith. Indeed, the Spirit of the Christ who so loves His Father dwells within born again believers (Galatians 4:6). This motivates within us the desire to love God, and as we trust our Lord, the power to sincerely do so flows in our human faculties to empower genuine affection, commitment, faith, and faithfulness. "The grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus" (I Timothy 1:14).
We play a genuine and vital role in loving God. He does not merely program our devotion. Our "I will love Thee" must be freely determined within our hearts for our commitment to have any meaning to God, or to ourselves. However, we make that commitment in full realization of our need and dependence for the Holy Spirit's enabling. Both sensibilities lead us into a response far beyond mere obligation or any sense of fulfilling a debt that, by definition, can never be a component of response to God's freely given grace in Christ.
"Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity."
(Ephesians 6:24)
"Serve Him in sincerity and in truth."
(Joshua 24:14).
Weekly Memory Verse
I will love Thee, o Lord, my strength!"
(Psalm 18:1)
6215
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