Deuteronomy 6:4-9 says, ““Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our
God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 These words, which I am
commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently
to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you
walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind
them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. 9
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”
Sometimes, I wish we were so quick to see symbolism in the
Bible. I really wish that we would write things on our foreheads or our gates
or doorposts. It’s not some sort of radical experiment but if something is
written on your forehead, don’t you think you’ll remember it? If you don’t,
people will remind you.
But why should we love Christ? 1st John says that
we love Christ because He first loves us. Paul says that while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us. It’s not something that we need to do when we
truly understand what he does for us. When we get hit by something that big, we
don’t need to react. Take our example of being hit by an 18-wheeler. In that
case, we don’t need to fall back down the road a few yards because the impact
of the vehicle will do it for us. In this, we are not called to just love God
because we have to, but we are simply called to react to His true love for us
and the way that shows His affection by dying on the cross.
My heart is to pastor people and to lead people closer to
Christ, but sometimes I feel like pastors, and a lot of times myself, try to
perfect everything in a Christian’s life but not touch on the love of Christ.
The only reason we sin is because we don’t understand that depth and width and
height of the love of Christ. If we did, we wouldn’t chase after other things
like money, worldly success, and relational gratification.
I don’t write this as an expert on the love of God, but as
someone who needs to be informed and consumed by it. I need God every day to
explain how much He is lavishly in love with me. I need Him to reveal His love
to me when I wake up and go about my daily duties. I need to remember His love
and affection in the days where my heart is wondering. I might as well write
His love upon my head.
So chase after the knowledge and fullness of the love of
Christ and pray to be impacted, which then is the fulfillment of the greatest
commandment – Forsake All
No comments:
Post a Comment