Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Do I Love Him?

I was recently in a discussion about the Fruit of the Spirit. The apostle Paul lists them in Galatians 5:22 giving us an idea of how we act when the Spirit of God is living in us. In reading over the list….love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control….I began to think, maybe I don’t display these attributes of God very well because I’m doing it for the wrong reason. Maybe I am longing for these traits and working on them in my life so that my relationships with others will be better. Could it be that I want these so that I will be more attractive to others?? That’s when I felt God put on my heart this thought – “aspire to these things for Me, do them for Me.”

What a novel idea! I always thought of this list of attributes as ways to act in relationship with other people. I never thought about God wanting me to show them to Him! I read through the list again. The first one is love….My mind flooded with verses I know about how God feels about me. He is so in love with me….verses like Isaiah 43:4 which say “I am precious in God’s sight; I am honored and loved by Him.”

We all look for love in our lives, even God longs for devoted love. Second Chronicles 16:9 tells us that “the Lord searches all the earth for people who have given themselves completely to Him.”

But, do I love God? Really? It’s a huge commitment when we consider giving our love to another person. How much more should we examine the love we feel and offer to the creator of the Universe? Is it real? Is it deep? Stormie Omartian offers some good guidelines to check our love for God in her book The Power of a Praying Woman. Our love for God is growing deep when:
1 We ask Him what we can do for Him.
2. We find ourselves praying to Him many times a day just because we love to be in His presence.
3. We can praise God no matter what is going on in our lives.
4. We love and reverence God for Who He is, not trying to make Him into something of our own design or loving Him for what He can do for us.
5. We believe that God wants to answer the prayers we pray in line with His will.

God promises to help us with our love and devotion to Him. In Ezekiel 36: 24ff, He promises to give us a new heart that is pliable and give us His Spirit to help us want to love Him and obey Him.

When we are in love with someone, we have pet names that we give that person. Sometimes they reveal to us intimate names that we can call the object of our love. God is no different; in fact He has given us hundreds of names for Him that help us to know Him more intimately. Below is a list of 30 names to call the God you love. We can focus on one a day and read the scripture that accompanies each name. Speak to God all through the day using this name. As you come across other names for God, add them to this list.

As Paul says in Philippians 1:9, “may your love abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.” I pray that this growing, deepening love will lead to a harvest of fruit in our lives that is offered first to God and then to those around us.

Denise Dunlap

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