September 8, 2003 Monday
Shinning or Fading Love

"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment." - Matthew 22:37,38

God's commands are His authoritative prescription, mixed precisely for me and you, written so that we might ever experience Him in a life of pure worship and never fade in our love towards Him. Love is like every emotion we experience, it sometimes shines and it sometimes fades. When we begin disregarding God's commands our love for Him fades and He is quick to speak, "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love." (Revelation 2:4) Our degree of love for Him is easily assessed within our own hearts; God's love toward us is infinite because He is always fixed directly on us...our love toward Him is limited because we stray far from Him. Jesus stated that two great commands exist, from which every other command under Heaven hangs, "love the Lord" and "love thy neighbor". In other words, love Jesus Christ and everything He has created...with everything you have been given. When you find yourself struggling to keep His commands know this, your love for Him is quickly fading....instead of turning your eyes towards Christ, you've been turning them away. When our eyes turn away from Him they immediately become filled with everything they were designed to never see. "But now we see not yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus..." (Hebrews 2:8,9) If you don't want to lose your love for Him then never lose sight of Him. It's impossible to focus simultaneously on Christ and sin...and right now you're looking at one or the other...learning to love Him more or starting to love Him less. Don't fall in love with the things that are "under him", but fall in love with Him alone. God is clear that all of His commands are to be upheld with the utmost respect, but this command has been exalted so high that Jesus questioned Peter's attentiveness to it three times, asking him, "Lovest thou me?" (John 21:15-17) He has warned us all, "This is the first and GREAT commandment." Is your love towards Him shinning or fading?