Tag: Loving God

Categories
Joshua Devotionals

Watch yourselves

Guard your heart

So diligently watch yourselves! Love the Lord your God! (Joshua 23:11)

Those words arrested my attention this morning.

“Watch yourselves.”

And not only, “Watch yourselves.”

“Diligently watch yourselves.”

For what purpose?

That our love for God would show in our every thought, action, and deed.

This morning, my heart was a bit out of sorts and my attitude not right.

Part of it was concern about my daughter catching a cold and being forced to miss her semester exams.

Part of it was just some annoyances at work.

But after reading that verse, I’m trying to refocus and remember what’s important: To love God. And to love those he’s put in my life.

It’s so easy to get put off track by our circumstances and our emotions.

But let’s remember Joshua’s words:

“Diligently watch yourselves.”

“Love the Lord your God.”

Categories
Judges Devotionals

Who does our heart belong to?

Judges

“How can you say, ‘I love you,’ ” she told him, “when your heart is not with me?” (Judges 16:15)

Lots of irony in those words since Delilah’s heart was clearly not with Samson. Whatever love she may have had for him was clearly diluted by her love for money.

The same could be said for Samson’s love for Delilah, and for that matter, God.

And ultimately, that was Samson’s biggest problem: his diluted love for God. His heart never truly belonged to God.

I’d like to think he truly repented at the end. Did he? I don’t know. It seems that revenge was still at the top of his mind rather than the welfare of Israel.

He “judged” Israel. But he never truly cared for the sheep God had raised him up to care for. And I think his people sensed that. They certainly didn’t consider him someone they wanted to follow. (Judges 15:11-12)

How about us? Do our hearts truly belong to God? And do we truly love the people God has placed into our lives? (Matthew 22:36-40)

Categories
1 John

In love with the Father? In love with the world?

crossroad

As I read this, I can’t help but think that John was reflecting back to Jesus’ own words when He said,

No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money…

What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight. (Luke 16:13, 15)

Remarkably close to what John says in this passage.

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. (1 John 2:15-16)

Imagine telling your wife, “Yes I love you. But I love this other woman just as much. So I will give of myself to both you and her.”

How would your wife respond? How would you respond if you were the wife? Not well, I would suspect.

But that’s just what so many Christians try to do. All week, they are pursuing and clinging to the things of this world. They chase after money, possessions, power, and pleasure, trying to grasp all the things this world offers. Temporary things. Fleeting things.

And then on Sunday they go to church and sing with tears in their eyes, “I love you Lord.”

But John says that’s not love. You cannot love the things in this world and still truly love God. Your spouse would never accept that kind of love. And neither will God.

He desires our whole heart, not half of it, not three quarters, not even 99 percent. Anything less is unacceptable to him. He needs to be first in our lives, and everything else a distant second.

John says,

The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (17)

In short, we can pursue what is fleeting or what is eternal.

Why pursue a world that is fleeting and will ultimately leave you empty? You might as well pursue a long-term, loving relationship with a prostitute. Both will eventually cast you aside, having taken everything from you and ultimately leaving you with nothing.

But when we pursue God, that’s when we find true life, true love, and true joy. Life, love, and joy that are lasting.

Which will you choose?

Categories
Psalms

The One who deserves our praise and trust

Psalms

The psalmist starts out this psalm with a cry that resonates.

Not to us, O LORD, not to us
but to your name be the glory,
because of your love and faithfulness. (Psalm 115:1)

Who are you living for? For yourself? What are you living for? To make money? To achieve glory?

Or are you living for him who actually deserves all the glory because of his faithfulness and love toward us?

Throughout this psalm, the writer urges us to praise and put our trust in God. Why? What makes him worthy of it?

For one thing, he is the one who can do all things. Verse 3 puts it this way,

Our God is in heaven;
he does whatever pleases him. (3)

People have two reactions to this. One is fear. “If God can do anything, there’s no telling what he might do to me.”

But for those who have come to know him, they stand in awe. That this God who can do anything nevertheless loves and cares for us. And that no matter how often we are faithless, yet he remains faithful to us.

We stand in awe because he is no mere idol with eyes that can’t see, ears that can’t hear, a nose but can’t smell, hands but can’t feel, feet but can’t walk, and a mouth but can’t speak.

Such a god is utterly powerless to help himself, no less us.

But our God sees us, he hears and answers us when we call, and he acts on behalf of those who love him.

And so not only does this Jewish psalmist call for the Jews to trust in him, but he says,

You who fear him, trust in the LORD—
he is their help and shield. (11)

What happens when we do?

The LORD remembers us and will bless us:
He will bless the house of Israel,
he will bless the house of Aaron,
he will bless those who fear the LORD—
small and great alike. (12–13)

How are you living your life? Are you trying to stay in control? Are you fretting because you can’t manage to stay on top of things?

Then let go. Put your trust in God. He will be your help. He will be your shield. And because he is all-powerful, he can stay on top of things where you can’t.

So as the psalmist sings,

Extol the LORD, both now and forevermore.

Praise the LORD. (18)

Categories
Micah

Empty religion

Walk humbly with your God

“I call to the stand the people of Israel.”

That’s basically the opening of Micah 6, where God calls the Israelites to account in a court-like atmosphere.

He cross-examines them, saying,

My people what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me! (Micah 6:3)

He then testifies of all he’d done for Israel, delivering them from Egypt and from those who tried to harm them, and leading them through the desert to the promised land.

At which point, the people got exasperated with all the questioning.

They asked God, “Well what do you want? We’ll do anything just to get you to shut up and leave us alone!

Do you want offerings of calves and rams? Shall I offer my own children as a sacrifice? What do you want anyway?”

That’s the kind of attitude that many people take when it comes to God. They think that all he wants is religious ritual. Going to church. Sacrificing their money by giving tithes. Fasting.

Some people at Lent will give up things that they usually do, thinking that it will earn them points with God, but then live their own way the rest of the year.

And that’s how the Israelites were. They just wanted to get their sacrifices out of the way, hopefully appease God through them, and then live their own way the rest of the time.

But Micah told them,

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)

God is not interested in empty religion. What is empty religion? It’s doing religious acts devoid of a love for God. It’s doing religious rituals one day, but doing your own thing the rest of the time.

For the Israelites, they were cheating people in business and acting violently against each other (Micah 6:10–12).

While they were willing to act religiously to get God off their backs, they refused to do what God really required. To do what was right, to show mercy to the people around them, and to walk humbly with God daily, not just once a week.

How about you? What do you think pleases God? It’s not your money. It’s not going to church. It’s not doing religious rituals.

Jesus summed it up this way, when asked what the greatest commandment was. It wasn’t sacrifices. It wasn’t tithing. It wasn’t any religious rituals. Instead he said,

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. (Mark 12:30–31)

Do you want to please God?

It’s not found in empty religious acts.

It’s found in loving God, and in loving others.

That’s what God truly desires.