Tuesday, September 11, 2007

The Object of Our Love

September 7, 2007 quote for "In Other Words"

"The worth and Excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love."Henry Scougal (The Life of God in the Soul of Man ), quoted by John Piper in The Pleasures of God.

Several times throughout the Old as well as the New Testament the statement has been made that we need to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. In the New Testament an expert in the law who was attempting to test Jesus asked Him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus stressed the point we just talked about and added more to it as He replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27 (NIV)

There we have it straight from Jesus Himself telling us to make God the object of our love. Making it the focus, purpose, aim, and central point of all we do, adding on the note to love our neighbor as ourselves. It is when we do this that we see the worth and excellency of our souls increase as Christ increases within us. It’s not measured by how much we have given to our local charity, church, or donated to Good Will or the Salvation Army. It is calculated by where the object of our love is located. Is it to be found in a sport, hobby, money, ourselves, or some where else? We need to look.

The value we get from accomplishments here on earth via our wealth, achievements, successes, or other things are short lived. The outstanding merit brought on as the result of making God and Christ our focus in our soul is something that will last for all eternity.

In 2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV) God made the statement that, “if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” At the time He was talking to Solomon who had just finished his work on the temple but they are words for all of us to hear and heed to. Again it stresses the fact that God needs to be the object of all we do, it is His face we need to seek and nothing else.

The object of God’s love is seen in what He did for us when He sent His son to die on our behalf as stated in John 3:16 (NKJV) “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” There’s a lot God has done and is still doing but only we can make the choice to make Him the central point of our love. A choice done daily that results in a worth and excellency that money can’t buy, a person can’t earn, an earthly achievement can’t surpass. Praise the Lord!

Closing thought: It is said that if you aim at nothing you will hit it every time. Also true is if we aim for God directing our love towards Him we will find Him every time. What a glorious wonderful thing to have the opportunity to seek the face of God. It’s something that is not hidden from us, as Satan would have us believe. He is there, the rest remains up to us to do our part as we carry out the command of Christ to love the Lord with ALL our heart, soul, mind and strength holding back none for ourselves but giving it all to Him the object of our love. AMEN!

The Host this week is Laurel Wreath. Go there now to share and read what others have written on this awesome subject of making God the object of our love.

5 comments:

Denise said...

Well said, bless you dear one.

Lori said...

This is beautiful and I love your closing thoughts. "...if we aim for God directing our love towards Him we will find Him every time." OH AMEN!

Miriam Pauline said...

Beautifully said. Thank you!

lori said...

wonderfully said...you got me, as you did Laurel with your closing thoughts...a woman of widsom in my life said that often..SHE directs her love towards HIM and she amazes me...
I loved it!!
thanks for the blessing today

Mrs. Pharris said...

Your closing thoughts are so on target! Thank you so much for sharing!