Devotion – Part II

Last time we talked about God’s devotion toward us. Just writing about it was a blessing. There is nothing more soothing or strengthening to the soul than meditating on the unconquerable love of God for us! I’ve been saved for roughly 12 years now, and I feel like my understanding of God’s love is just beginning to dawn. I know I will never fully fathom it, but I think I’m gaining a holy obsession with it. I want to understand it, but even more I want to experience it.

Today I want to continue the discussion. However, I want to talk about it from the human perspective. Seeing we have received such an incredible salvation – bought at a high price, but given to us freely – we ought to respond in kind. God’s radical devotion to us should be met with equally radical devotion from us. Jesus put it this way:

“The most important [commandment] is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ Mark 12:29-30

We are desensitized to this verse. We’ve heard it a million times. We “get” it. But stop for a few seconds and meditate on it. Let it roll around in your brain a bit. Jesus’ priority for our life is to love God. To love God. To LOVE God.

…keep thinking about it…

…take a few seconds, or minutes…

…maybe you should say a quick prayer…

…tell God you love Him…

…tell Him again…

…now let Him love you for a few seconds…

John said, “We love because he first loved us” (1Jn. 4:19). When we begin to experience the love of God, love will simply ooze out of us. Again, John says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love” (1Jn. 4:8). To be fair to the context of both verses, John is talking more about loving one another than loving God directly. But these two verses are a little more abstract than the surrounding context. Both present the idea that love itself emanates from God, and that without knowing God and experiencing God’s love, one cannot truly love at all.

When we truly experience God’s love, we cannot help but love Him back. And when we shower our love on God, He showers us back with His love, which we then shower upon Him, ad infinitum. Paul put it this way: “…God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom. 5:5). Imagine your heart as a cup into which is being poured the pure love of God. The more He pours into us, the more we overflow with pure love back toward God, toward those around us, even toward our enemies! Jesus walked in perfect fellowship with God. The result: He prayed for the people who drove the nails into His hands. While he hung, bleeding and suffocating on the cross, He was able to lead a condemned man to salvation, and He gave instructions for His mother to be taken care of after His death. Even in His greatest suffering, He couldn’t help but overflow with love for everyone else.

So, the primary way we show devotion toward God is simply by loving. Let’s be sure not to ‘theologize’ this. Love may be more than an emotion, but it is at least an emotion. Learn to feel love for God and others. If you don’t feel it, pray. If you are finding it difficult to feel love for God and others, it is likely because you are not experiencing God’s love for you. You need an infusion of divine love. It’s like fuel for the soul. Without it we burn out quickly. We get sick of people. We get annoyed easily. We become impatient. But when we regularly feel the love of God for us, we find ourselves becoming very liberal with love. We love everyone, all the time.

I recall an experience in Bible School in which I had spent a couple hours in intense prayer alone with God. I returned from the empty room on the 3rd floor of our dormitory, saw a couple of fellow students and said, very genuinely, “You know, I really love you guys.” They blinked for a few seconds, then one said, “You’ve been praying haven’t you?” Spend some time in God’s presence, and you’ll be saying, “I love you, man” to complete strangers!

Well, I said more than I intended. I guess there will be a part 3 to this one. Or perhaps a “Part 2b.” Next time I’ll talk about the how true devotion to God requires holiness. Stay tuned!