The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Holy Synthesis"
The Psalmist offers one of the most blessed, but also most challenging, affirmations of Scripture regarding the believer's walk with God.
"I will love Thee, O Lord my strength" (Psalm 18:1).
First, we determine to freely live in devoted fellowship with our Lord, accepting the necessity of "I will love Thee." By Biblical definition, love cannot be programmed or coerced if it is to be real. Our Lord would have no interest in our response to Him if He merely punched buttons of love in us to make inevitable our love for Him. Nor should we have interest in any notion that renders both God and ourselves without heart or genuine personality. We must rather accept the fact of our high calling to freely love our God. Indeed, at the end of this day we will all have made real choices to love our Lord. Or to not.
On the blessed other hand, we lay hold of "Oh Lord, my strength." To love God and to love as God loves requires His love to be present, involved, and dynamically active in hearts. As in…
"The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5).
In a Bible full of utterly astonishing propositions, none should more drive us to our knees and faces in the wonder of our Father's grace. He comes to dwell within those who trust the Lord Jesus Christ, bringing with Him His own character whereby we become "partakers of the divine nature" (II Peter 1:4). He comes to live as love in us, love "shed abroad (lavishly dispensed) in our hearts." Thereby, we can "love… as Christ loved," which includes our capacity to walk in completely dependent, but again, completely free response to God (Ephesians 5:25).
Such truth may boggle the mind. The heart of the believer, however, knows the holy synthesis of "I will love" and "O Lord, my strength." We waste no time seeking to fully understand the enigma, diverting our time and attention in the quest to walk in loving faith and faithfulness. Yes, we love God by His love directed to us, given for us, and vitally alive in us. He receives all glory thereby. However, we recognize no less that we will not love Him in this or in any day if we do not exercise our privileged responsibility to freely determine our devotion. We close with the Apostle Paul's declaration of the holy synthesis of God's grace and our response…
"Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure."
(Philippians 2:12-13)
Weekly Memory Verse
Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.
(Psalm 36:5)
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