The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Holy Fusion - Faith and Love"
We love God when we trust Him. "Faith… worketh by love" (Galatians 5:6).
Every genuine act of faith involves an act of obedience: "the obedience of faith" (Romans 16:26). Acts of obedience involve love - "If ye love Me, keep My commandments - and Scripture calls us to "trust in the Lord with all thine heart" (John 14:15; Proverbs 3:5). Thus, to trust God is to love Him. He accounts it so, and we must join our Heavenly Father in the realization of the holy fusion regarding loving devotion and faith.
This truth becomes more realized when we remember the battlefield on which we presently live our lives regarding faith. "Fight the good fight of faith" commanded the Apostle Paul, who well knew that believing God in a fallen world of fallen devils and fallen flesh will always involve sacrifice (I Timothy 6:12). Much outside ourselves screams and whispers suggestions to trust in dust rather than the living and true God. Trusting God also finds us internally challenged to make choices that flow against inclinations, emotions, and notions that counter our Lord's perfect faithfulness: the flesh lusteth against the Spirit" (Galatians 5:17). This places a premium on true faith, a premium of love whereby believing the Word of God means we overcome outward and inward temptations to affirm with the Psalmist, "I will trust in Thee" (Psalm 55:23). Yes, we self sacrificially love God when we believe Him in the face of so much that counters His promises.
Certainly, this speaks and sings to our hearts of grace. Our Father accounts our reception of His provision by faith as not only revealing His love for us, but also our love for Him. It must be so because He so loves to give, and He is so pleased when we receive. As we have often suggested in these messages, the only thing we can really give to the One who possesses all is the gift of receiving His provision. We thereby please Him greatly, honoring His faithfulness, and overcoming the challenges by a determined act of our hearts to devote ourselves to God by committing our trust to Him. "He had this testimony" wrote the author of Hebrews regarding Enoch's faith, "that he pleased God" (Hebrews 11:5).
King David closes our consideration with his perfect expression of the holy fusion whereby we love God by relying on His promised presence, involvement, and enabling…
"I will love Thee, o Lord my strength."
(Psalm 18:1)
Weekly Memory Verse
I will love Thee, o Lord my strength.
(Psalm 18:1)
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