To love God with all that I am and all that I have is the first and greatest commandment. Obeying this precious command should be the passion of every authentic follower of Jesus. Once we understand what it means to love God, it is essential that we grow in our pursuit of this kind of first love devotion to God.
There are four essential continual steps to growing in a first love devotion to God. They are an overflow of the definition, so if you did not read last week's blog, that might be a helpful first step….so stop now and go back there.
If you have read it, the key question we need to ask is the how question, for if we belong to God we long for this!
How do I grow to have an all defining, consuming love for God?
Five steps will help you in this pursuit, and they are in order.
Step 1: A Growing Experience Of God’s Love:
We love because He first loved us. If we do not experience His love deeply, we will be self-centred in our lives. The only way to break the spell of fixation with self and rights is to experience God’s love richly and deeply.
Actively pursue a deeper knowledge and experience of the Gospel. Pray Ephesians 3:14-21, and learn the Gospel well in all of its glory…so that your mind can remind your heart of the glory of His love.
Pray that you would live in light of Romans 8:28-39, and memorize it so that the greatness of this promise will define your reality more than the culture. Nothing can separate you from His love!
Grow in this.
STOP: How can you actively grow in your experience of God’s love? Be practical in your answer.
Step 2: Simplify and Choose:
If loving God is seen most clearly by obeying God we must know His Word and choose to obey it.
This means a passionate pursuit of word saturation, as well as a humble simplification of the situation we find ourselves in….so that we can choose God’s way.
In every situation there is a right and wrong, even where the Bible is not clear, but it takes training and discipline to know and choose (Romans 12:1-2).
If you want to truly love God, then simplify the situation you are in, die to self, and choose simple humble obedience. SIMPLIFY and CHOOSE.
Almost always obeying/loving Jesus will mean loving others, placing their spiritual well-being ahead of our own. this will mean we are gracious, slow to judge others, and quick to forgive. This means we die to self and seek to out honour one another (Romans 12:10).
This is not easy, and will take the conscious awareness of God’s presence, love, power, and then to choose in light of His reality to follow Him fully.
STOP: Think of a situation that you were in in the last week where you chose your flesh or the world ahead of obedience to God. If you can’t find one quickly, ask God. How could you have simplified and chosen obedience in that situation? How can you do this moving forward?
Step 3: Reminders:
It is important in a world where the demonic attacks by lulling us to sleep to remind ourselves of the importance of living in God’s love and presence.
For me, how I wake up is super important to my living in the context of the Gospel and not the flesh. If I don’t it is easy for me to misjudge others, or when I feel attacked to be defensive rather than glorifying God (before you judge me too harshly, you do this as well). I love the song, Jesus Thank You, as a wake up call, starting in God’s Word and seeking to learn to begin the day.
Don’t just start there, seek to stay there. This can be done with Scripture memorization, reminders you wear, or so many other ways.
I wear a ring on my pinky…coming from a family of engineers the pinky holds special value for my ring. It is a reminder that every time I write, type, or function I am doing so as one loved by God and in His plan. This helps me get to the place where I can simplify and choose.
STOP: What are some reminders of God’s love and presence that you can build into your life? Wait…before you move on to step 4, put action on your plan. Jesus gave the church baptism and the Lord’s Table, and if you are anything like me these are precious and powerful and I need even more.
As Bridges has helpfully shared, being conscious of God’s presence is the key to authentic revival.
Step 4: Community Of Faith:
This blog is getting a little long, but if you want to love God with all you are and have you are still reading. We need one another or we will be deceived by sin.
Almost always when someone misjudges me it comes from a place of hardness of heart or sin…now before you join me in wishing others were better at not being hard hearted, it is the same for me in misjudging others. Having a community of faith to serve and love and prefer, a place of accountability and word saturation, a place of Gospel orientation, is key to being healthy in loving God.
God has made us and redeemed us to need one another, and the pathway to maturity in loving God is a pathway that includes the local church (Ephesians 4:11-16).
STOP: Are you committed to a local church? What are the spiritual gifts God has given you to serve others? How are you being careful to build up others in your church family? Are you willing to share your life with others so that you can be protected in the spiritual battle to authentically love God (Hebrews 3:12-14)?
And step five…hopefully you have taken the time to not only know these things but apply them…here is step five…
Step 5…GRACE…
Huh???
Grace…if you are seeking to obey this command and really honest with how well you are doing at it, you will need grace to empower you, and grace to free you.
Grace is a teacher (Titus 2:11-14) and grace brings freedom (Romans 8:1).
So as you seek this GOAT command practically make sure you do so in the context of the power of the Holy Spirit and the glory of God’s grace that has forgiven you of all your sin.
You are accepted by God as much today as you will be in a million years because you are accepted in Christ, and you will seek to live in an all defining relationship with Him that is growing because you are His and He is at work in you.
Let us grow in our LOVE for God and glorify Him!
A fellow loved child of the KING,
Pastor Rob