Tuesday, September 27, 2016

The Sweetness Of God

When looking for a definition of love, I found this: an intense feeling of deep affection, a feeling of deep romantic or sexual attachment to (someone)(or for some people something!). This is a very basic and simplistic explanation, and many people are thrown off by the feeling of love, because they often confuse like with love, or lust with love.

Everyone has the ability to be kind to others, and you may even say that you like a person, or that you like to do a certain activity, but love is in a category of its own. Love inspires people, transforms their hearts and minds, and gives a feeling of deep euphoria and pleasure. Everyone loves to 'fall in love', and when the right person comes along, that is usually what you feel, but this is only one dimension of love; in fact, God's kind of love, agape love, brings love to its highest level of achievement.

Agape love is a selfless, sacrificial, unconditional love and the highest form of love. Agape is the term that defines God's immeasurable, incomparable love for humankind. It is His ongoing, outgoing, self-sacrificing concern for lost and fallen people. God gives this love without condition, unreservedly to those who are undeserving and inferior to Himself. When you are loved by God, you know it because it changes your life.

You see things from His point of view. You have peace in your heart, and you have rest in His presence and in His arms. No one will ever be able to love you the way that God does, because He is love, the highest and purest form of love, and He will give you His love, His heart, and His mind. His thoughts are not like our thoughts, for He sees everything that goes on in the universe, and our vision is limited. But He has never made me feel small or insignificant; contrary to popular belief, God didn't just make the universe and then went on His merry way, leaving mankind to fend for itself. He is deeply ingrained into everything that goes on in this world, and He loves to be apart of His children's lives as well.

One of the things that a child of God has to learn is to trust Him; let yourself be led by His Holy Spirit. It is never easy, for we have a selfish streak in our hearts, and we desire things, circumstances, and people that should never be allowed into our lives. It was hard for me to comprehend how much He loved me, the depth of His feeling and passion for me. Yes, I knew Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins, and I was grateful that He came to save me and I loved Him for it, but I never knew how deeply He cared for me, that He actually wanted to be involved in my every day life. I found out that He had a destiny for me, a plan to save me, love me and do wonderful things through me for His Name and Glory's sake.

The Sweetness Of God is this: that He cared enough to provide a solution to my sin problem long before I was born and even before the world was formed; that He gave His only begotten son, Jesus Christ, as a sacrifice for my sins, and the sins of the whole world, that He gave our ancestors, adam and eve a choice to live for Him or for themselves, and they chose to go their own way and worship themselves. They believed the devil's lies that they could be just like God, that they didn't need Him; they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and this corrupted their minds and hearts, for knowing good and evil gives you the ability to be either good or bad; that is why God cannot bear to have evil in his presence; He is only good, and this is the reason we must be redeemed by accepting Jesus Christ as our savior, for His Blood washes away all our sins, and now when God sees us, He doesn't see our corrupted nature, but He sees His son's Blood, and we are declared righteous when we move into His presence.

He is so tender with His little ones, because He knows that we can't help being the way that we are; He is not asking us to be perfect, because that is not possible. While we live on the earth on this side of kingdom come, we must depend on Him to give us the ability to live as Christ's disciples, to be led by His Holy Spirit, and read His word, allow the Word and the Holy Spirit to change our hearts and minds; choose to follow Him and trust His wisdom and guidance, and give our lives to Him as shining examples of citizens of the kingdom of God.

We won't always do what is right, we fight our own selfish natures, but we don't fight alone; once we surrender our will, and seek first to do His will, He will enable us to resist those selfish desires, as well as the devil, who is always around suggesting evil thoughts and desires. If you have never felt His presence in your life, or the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and you believe that you are a christian, then you are missing out on a key element of chirstian life. You need to ask yourself, have I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior?, did I ask Him to come into my life and did I invite the Holy Spirit into my heart and mind? Some people believe they are christians just because they were born into a christian family, or because they were raised in a church, and they go to church every Sunday, listen to a sermon, put money into the offering plate, sing on the choir, and they are listed as a member on the church membership roll.

All of that is nice, but when you leave the service, get into your car, walk home, have your Sunday dinner, go to bed, and get up the next morning to go to work, can you honestly say you behave the same as you do when you are in church? Can the people in your lives say truthfully that you are a christian, can they say that everything you see and hear in church impacts your daily life? If not, I encourage you to come clean with yourself and with God, for the times are getting darker and harder, and only those who abide in Jesus Christ will survive what is about to come on the earth.

Seek His face, and repent of your sins, allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in you, and give you the ability to live righteous lives in His presence. If you have never confessed Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, do so now:

Prayer of Salvation

Lord,

I repent for trying to be master of my own life. I change my mind about who I want to be in charge of my life. I turn from my useless and unproductive thoughts that I am the center of my universe and choose to believe in the living God who created everything, including me (Acts 14:15). I have lived without a purpose but now I will live to hear and obey You, God (Jn. 5:19, 20,30).

I confess with my lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in my heart that God raised Him from the dead. I believe that God so loved the world He sent His only Son Jesus to shed His blood to wash away the barrier of sin (Jn. 3:16)

I receive You, Jesus as MY Lord and Savior (Jn. 1:11,12).

I welcome You, Holy Spirit, into my life to rescue and empower me and to restore me to intimacy with my heavenly Father (Acts 2:38).

If you just confessed this prayer, you are saved! I welcome you into the family my (brother/sister) I pray for peace, joy, and happiness in your life as you allow the Lord to love you and bless you and give you assurance of everlasting life with Him forever and ever......PRAISE GOD!

May the Lord keep you and Bless you this day....Amen

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