He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to act justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8

“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.’ Matthew 23:37,38

How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number—living things both large and small. Psalm 104:24-25

This is Love, This is God

He’s the beauty of a starlit evening
And the mystery of the sea.
He’s the music of a newborn crying
And the promise of eternity.
He has the strength to move mountains
Yet, the grace to forgive our sin.
He is present, past, and future,
All that is and all that’s ever been.
He is the sovereign ruler of the world
His plans are intricate.
His thoughts are impenetrable
For His mind is infinite.
To save us from our sins
He sent His Son to be betrayed.
Then saved the world by resurrecting
The very sacrifice He made.
He is all of this
And so much more,
This is love, this is God,
This is everything that I live for.
Linda Troxell ©03/21/17

Do you ever take time to sit down, clear your mind, to consider and study the power, character, and creativity of God? Every time I do, I realize I don’t do it often enough. 

Of course, I speak and I think about the elegance of a bird in flight or all of the beautiful colors displayed by the creatures of the sea. But I so seldom stop to consider the precision, the imagination, and the creativity God used to make each species.

 Just thinking about how a bird flies is mind-boggling. In order to take flight, a bird’s wings must be meticulously constructed. The curvature of each wing must be at a precise angle. Because, many of the body feathers are instrumental in maintaining flight, each of them must be constructed specifically for that action. And that doesn’t even touch on the ability to hover. 

I don’t know why I don’t take more time to watch and consider the variety of beautifully and creatively made plants, animals, and sea creatures God made to decorate our world.  

Okay, that isn’t precisely why He made these things, but still, they do decorate our world if only we take the time away from our screens to enjoy them. How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number—living things both large and small. Psalm 104:24-25

When we take time to enjoy God’s creations, we begin to see and feel the many wonders created for our pleasure. We begin to notice the beauty that takes our breath away and the majesty that inspires our awe.  

Who, among us has not been moved to tears by the birth of an infant? Who has not watched a sunrise or sunset, or the stars in a clear evening sky and become lost in the beauty and the majesty of these displays? 

And which of us has not experienced a love so fierce that we would give our lives for the object of that love? It may be difficult to comprehend, but God loves us immeasurably more than that. 

How often do we slow down enough to think about how much our Father in heaven loves us? I don’t mean a passing thought or a rote prayer. I mean sitting down, removing the veil of familiarity, and really considering God’s fierce love for us.  

How many realize that we have miracles in our lives that we just take for granted? These are the miracles we have heard about so many times, for so many years, they have become shrouded with a veil of familiarity robbing them of their awe and wonder.

The death of Jesus and His resurrection are probably the most important. Unfortunately, a close second is the love of God for His people. The fierce, recklessly, unconditional, and eternal love we don’t deserve but that God gave to us through His grace. 

Can I ask you to try, right now, to clear your mind of everything, every thought, every anxiety, and every worry. It’s okay, you can come back and pick them up again in a few minutes if you want to. But for now, I need your mind to be totally empty.

Your mind must be still and clear because I want you to read what comes next as if it’s brand new information. A story you are hearing for the first time. And right away, in your heart you know it’s true.

GOD LOVES YOU!

You are loved by the creator of the universe unconditionally, just as you are. Not only does He love you just as you are, but He also created you just as you are so He could love you. But wait, there’s more. Let me tell you what He did for you because He loves you. I think it might help you to realize the depth of His love.

God created the world and He made it beautiful with a myriad of colorful plants, trees, and flowers. He populated it with magical creatures; creatures who lived on the ground, creatures who lived in the trees, and creatures who lived in the water. And these creatures, like the plants, flowers, and trees were beautifully and creatively made. 

Soon, God wanted someone on earth with whom He could have a relationship. He wanted someone with a soul, who could think freely, have complex feelings, and who had free will. So God created man in His own image and soon He created woman as man’s companion. 

He gave these new creations free will and told them that they would live with Him forever in this perfect garden only if they would not sin. He explained, clearly to the couple that the law of the universe dictated that the consequence of sin is death, eternal separation from God. 

God emphatically explained to His people that they could eat anything in the garden except for the fruit from the tree of knowledge. To eat from that tree, God told them, would be a sin. But man and woman were unable to control themselves and soon they did commit a sin. They ate the forbidden fruit. 

This saddened God because He loved His people deeply. But there was not choice, they had to die, to be separated from God forever.  It was the law. But being separated from His new creations was not something God could accept. So he made a plan by which those He loved could be redeemed from their sin and be reconciled to Him. 

God sent His son, Jesus, to earth to redeem all sin. Fully God and fully human, He lived a sinless life on earth so His death could redeem the sins of the world. They both understood that Jesus would have to die for the plan to be completed. Still, God offered His Son and Jesus offered Himself as the redeemer. He was killed in a most horrific manner and His death atoned for our sins. 

On the third day after His death, the Son was resurrected from His tomb, and death was defeated forever. Through the death and resurrection of God’s son, the sins of mankind were redeemed making it possible for mankind to be reconciled to God. 

And all of us are offered the same gift of eternal life through God’s grace. The only requirement for receiving this gift is that we believe this story of the life and death of our Savior by faith. 

So you see, God loves us so much He sent His beloved son to die a horrible death to atone for our sins so that we can be with Him in eternity. What He did for us requires fierce love. It requires a love I don’t think any of us can fully understand. But I think we might want to spend more time trying. 

God doesn’t ask much of us. He wants us to love Him with all our hearts and all our souls and all our minds. And He wants to be first in our lives. He created us, why wouldn’t He be first? “Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.’ Matthew 23:37,38  

Family is important to God. We were created into a family in which Jesus was the cornerstone. And Jesus brought us back together as a family in the church. God wants for us to take care of one another. And He asks us to love one another. Isn’t that what a family does?  Jesus replied: ‘And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 23:39

Of course, there are other things God wants from us. But when asked about the most important law, Jesus answered with what boils down to just two things, to love God and love people. “But wait,” you say, “It has to be more than that”. “That’s too easy.” But is it, too easy? Let’s look.

Let’s start with what it takes to love our neighbor as ourselves. What do we do that demonstrates we love ourselves? Well, we make sure we have our basic needs met. We give ourselves food, shelter, and clothing. When was the last time you participated in giving food, clothes or shelter to someone in need? 

Maybe some of you would like to help, but you aren’t sure how you can. Let me help you. You can donate to organizations that provide these kinds of things for the needy. Better yet, you can serve at a food pantry or a soup kitchen. 

You can offer your talents and your time to charitable organizations. Are you an IT wizard? Offer to help with the computers. Do you love to bake? Teach kids in a group homes to bake. If nothing else, fill baggies with travel size essential self-care items and hand them out to the homeless in your area.

What else do we do to love ourselves? Well, we maintain our social connections. We pursue companionship from others we feel are interested in us beyond the basics of a “nice weather” chat. Someone who we feel cares about us, maybe even could love us. Have you provided companionship like that for someone in need?  

Experts agree that It is a universal human need to feel heard and seen. One way in which we can show love to others is simply by making them feel heard. We can take time to hear someone lonely or isolated. 

Now don’t confuse that with listening to them. We listen with our ears. But to hear we need to use our hearts. To make someone feel heard we must engage with them. People don’t need us to agree with their feelings but they do need us to validate them. 

We do that by having a conversation. To make someone feel seen and heard we must be interested in what they are saying. If they are taking the time to tell us, it must be important to them. How much effort does it take to make it important to us for just those few minutes? 

I left the most important way we can love others for last because it requires no real explanation. We love others by bringing them to Christ. The best gift of my life was meeting Jesus and the honor of giving my life to Him. We cannot love others if we don’t save them. We can’t save them unless we introduce them to Jesus. It’s that simple.

These are some of the things we can do to love our neighbors as ourselves. It’s no more complicated than the Golden Rule we all learned in Sunday School. We need to treat others as we want to be treated; as we want those we love to be treated.

It can be hard to love someone else. It requires us to put all interest in ourselves aside to concentrate on someone else’s needs. That goes against our selfish natures. It is humbling, Hmmm, maybe that’s a clue. Don’t we need a humble heart to worship God?

That brings us to how we can love God with all of our hearts, souls, and minds. How do we show God that He is first in our lives? Obviously, we start with spending time with Him. When we love someone we can’t wait to spend time with them. Is that how you feel about your time with God?

Well, to be fair, it’s only in a new love that we are so eager to spend time together. As love grows more mature, and life becomes more crowded, we still have the same love but life gets in the way of spending time together. Perhaps that describes your relationship with God. If it does, It’s up to you to take the time to spend with Him. It won’t be given to you. 

We show God we love Him when we strive to live more like Jesus. We can cooperate with and participate in the process of our sanctification. We can spend time in prayer and in His word. We can spend time with other Christians and we can love them.

To love God we must love His kids, that’s us, we need to take care of each other. And we need to care more for our brothers and sisters in need, widows, orphans, and the poor. Remember what Jesus said happens to those who ignore the needy?    …’ Truly I tell you, what you did not do for one of the least these, you did not do for me.’ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.  Matthew 25:44

Going to church every Sunday does not show that we love God. It is one part of what we need to progress in our Christian journey, but it has nothing to do with how we love God. James tells us God is not concerned with traditional religion.   “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27. 

If you stayed with me this far I hope you have discerned that love is not a feeling but a behavior. The romantic feeling of love really has nothing to do with loving someone. It may determine to whom we show our love, but it is not, itself, love..

To love is a choice we make. Those I know who have successful marriages confirm that they have to make that choice almost every day. That’s because love is a selfless act of giving and the grace of forgiving selfish acts. 

Caring is feeding someone hungry or sheltering someone cold. Love is  extending a helping hand to someone who has hurt us. Being generous is to share what we have with someone who has less. Love is to give someone who has nothing everything we have just because they need it more than we do. And loving others is God’s will for us.

There are some things about God’s will, like loving others, that are very clear. But it isn’t always that easy to determine God’s will. And prayer doesn’t always help. I don’t mind admitting that I don’t always get clear answers from God in my prayers

Yet, we can be thankful that in times when we don’t get a clear answer in prayer, God has not left us without direction. God’s Word guides us in His general will for His people even when it seems He is being silent on His specific will for any one of us. 

I have a go-to formula that allows me to live in a manner that honors God. it is a group of scriptures I can count on to lead me in God’s will at any time. There is Matthew 23:37-39 which tells us to love God and love people. In addition to that clear mandate is another scripture that sums up what God requires of us.  He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to act justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8

I believe this formula will not allow us to wander too far from God’s will. That if we follow these directions, If we strive to love God and to love our neighbors, and if we do our best to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God, we may not be where we’re going, but we are solidly on our way!

 Let’s pray

Lord, it is so difficult to know if we are doing your specific will for us. Many of us have a difficult time discerning your messages through our prayers. But we want to know that we are doing the best we can and that we are on the path you’ve chosen for us. We love you God, and we want to do what makes you happy. We want you to be first in our lives. Please, help us, Lord, to keep you first. We want to love and care for our brothers and sisters in Christ. Lord, help us to always keep them prominent in our thoughts. We want to provide in every way for those less fortunate including bringing them to Christ. Please, Lord, motivate our love and direct us in our evangelism. Lord, we ask for your grace and your strength in our efforts to be the people you want us to be. We ask that you help us to remember that we are all one family and that it is our duty to help each other, especially when we stumble off the paths you have anointed for us. Help us, Lord, in that pursuit. We pray this in the holy and sacred name of Jesus, Amen

 

Points for Pondering or for Prayer
Or
Perhaps for Putting Pen to Paper

In the post, I ask who, among us has not been moved to tears by the birth of a child, or become lost in the beauty of a sunrise, sunset, or starlit sky.     

Have you experienced any of these things? More than one? 
Write something about one or more experiences. 

 Have you ever sat down and cleared your mind and thought about how much God loves you? 
What did you find out, or learn?  Did anything in the experience surprise you?
Write something about this experience.

In Matthew 22:37-39, Jesus says the first and greatest commandment is to Love your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.
How well do you think you fulfill this greatest commandment? 
Write about some of the things you do to fulfill it.  

Jesus went on to say love your neighbor as you love yourself.
How well do you think you love yourself?
How well do you take care of your body? Your Mind? Your Soul?
How well do you think you love your neighbors?
Write about some of the things you do to love yourself and to love your neighbors.