LOVE FOR THE LORD
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5 (NKJV)
Glory be to God for his mercies and lovingkindness towards us. The Lord has been good to us since the beginning of the year 2022.We thank God for bringing us to the month of August 2022.
Moses told the children of Israel in the wilderness that the Lord expected them to love Him with all their heart, their soul, and their strength. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ confirmed this statement in Mark 12:30, and He said this is the first commandment.
God is a loving God, and He created us with a heart so that we would love Him wholly and absolutely. God first loved us in that He instilled us with His love and produced within us the love with which we love Him and the brothers (1 John 4:19-21).
The joy of being loved, forgiven, and cleansed by Christ creates a burning heart of love for Him. 1 John 4:10, 19—Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. -We love Him because He first loved us.
Romans 8:37—Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
When love grips your heart for the Lord and all that He has done for you, it sparks a fire that warms your soul. Your heart will be on fire as you ponder the fact that He even gives you the time of day and is concerned about you. In fact, the Lord humbles Himself when He considers you because He is so great, awesome, and mighty.
Psalm 113:5-6—Who is like unto the LORD our God, who dwelleth on high, 6 Who humbled himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth!
As you meditate and ponder His mercy, grace, forgiveness, care, and provision with a grateful heart, you cannot help but grow in your love and praise for Him.
Psalm 116:1—I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.
When we look at Abraham, we find he had a burning heart for God because of his love for the Lord. Whatever God wanted for him was the most important thing in his life. Abraham learned to trust God implicitly, so much, that when the Lord commanded him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice, he obeyed without flinching Genesis 22:7-12
Abraham was so confident in the Lord, that he believed if Isaac died, the Lord was able to raise him up again. To offer his only son in obedience was a clear indication of his love for the Lord.
Hebrews 11:17-19—By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 Of whom it was said, that in Isaac shall thy seed be called: 19 Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.
All throughout the Gospels, we find folks that had been saved, had indescribable joy and devotion to the Lord as they followed Him. Mary was one of many.
John 12:3—Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.
The gratitude of forgiveness provokes the flames of a burning loving heart for the Lord. Are you grateful for what the Lord has done for you? Do you have a burning heart? Are your eyes opened to what God has done for you?
May the Lord fill our hearts with love for Him in Jesus’ name. Welcome to the month of August, the 8th month of the year 2022.
PRAYERS
Father, grant me the grace to love You more? Give me the understanding to know Your love and to return love to You with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength in Jesus’ name.
Yours in Him,
Pastor Lillian Haastrup
