Do I Really Love God?

My heart has been pricked by the Spirit of God and I am asking God to reveal the truth to the question “Do I really love God?”

I have just finished reading two different books. The first one was written by Francis Chan called Crazy Love, the second Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall & Denver Moore. Both books challenged me in the area of prejudice and love.

 

What does loving God look like? If I truly love God then my life will show it. I will live a life that shows obedience to a Holy God. In Matt 22:37-40 I am reminded that I am to love God and my neighbors. God tells me through the prophet Micah chapter 6 verse 8 that I am to do what God requires of me. What does He require? “But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?”

What my heart can’t let go of is this, if I truly love God then I will live a live of serving others. I will serve those less fortunate than I. I will serve the homeless, the broken hearted, the widows and orphans. I will serve them out of my love for God and all that He has done for me. I will not only serve them but I will love them. In many ways this is the harder part. I can serve a meal to the needy, write a check, give away material items. I can even serve at a food bank, or soup kitchen from time to time. But does this show love for them or does it just make me feel better because I have done my “Christian Duty?”

These are hard questions to ask of oneself and honestly I don’t like what I see.

To love with God’s kind of love means

I am willing to “get dirty”.

I am willing to sit beside a street person who hasn’t showered in weeks and love her.

I am willing to invite her out for coffee, to church and begin a relationship with her.

I will not look at her circumstances, whether poor or in prison. How she got there or her outward appearance but will look at her as a precious child of God.

I will not only be concerned with helping her eat and find a home but I will be concerned about where she will spend eternity.

No, I don’t like what I see. I see someone who would rather stay comfortable. Let me serve “church ladies” or teach a Bible study to Christians, don’t ask me to go to the “streets”. But I have to ask “Who needs the truth of God’s love more? Those who seat in the pews Sunday after Sunday being fed spiritually? Or those who are spiritually starving?”

Yes I could possibly make myself feel good by just going down to my local soup kitchen and serve but I hear God calling me to more than that. To only help with the physical of life and not the spiritual is not how God calls us to LOVE them.

I hear Him calling me to  "Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. Also do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place. Jeremiah 22:3

I hear Him telling me to fulfill my calling of Is 61:1-3

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners; To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn,To grant those who mourn in Zion, Giving them a garland instead of ashes, The oil of gladness instead of mourning, The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”

If I am honest my heart trembles within me. I know what the word says I am to do - He is calling me to love and teach, but I fear the where. I do not want to make a move until I know that I know that God is calling me to that place.

Oh God forgive me for my prejudice heart. Forgive me for my lack of showing your kind of love. Continue show my heart what it means to love with Your kind of love. Teach me to live a live out of total obedience, to serve, and to love those you place in my path no matter who they are or where they have come from. God I am afraid of what you may be asking of me, but I desire to step out in faith and follow You wherever you may send me. Amen