Page 4 - Good News October 2016 paper

esus said that when we love
receiving the gift God wants to
Him, we will obey Him (John give you.
J14:15), and the apostle John
writes that love for God consists We cannot deserve God's love. It
of our obedience to Him (2 John comes to us unconditionally. God
1:6). I like to say that the level of loves us first, and He pours His
our obedience to Jesus deter- love into us so we can love Him,
mines the level of our love for ourselves, and others. He does
Him. I believe our love for Him and not expect us to give away any-
obedience to Him can grow - and thing we do not have.
they do.
Sometimes we make being a
Everything in our relationship Christian very difficult and
with God after initial salvation is a complicated. We think we must
process. Do not be disappointed follow hundreds of rules and do
with yourself if you are still in the multitudes of things, but Jesus
process. Jesus will not be angry said that if we simply walk in love,
when He comes to get you if you that is enough (John 15:12). The
have not arrived at the mark of reason for this is that if we
perfection, but He does expect to concentrate on love, all the other
find all of us pressing on. things He asks us to do will also
get done. Love motivates us to
The commandment we should obey God, pray, be kind and
strive to obey throughout our merciful, give, forgive, repent,
lives is to WALK IN LOVE. Our and practice other aspects of our
lives and behaviour will change Christian faith.
dramatically if all of our thoughts,
words, and actions are guided by Let me encourage you to study
love! They are to be guided by our love. Read everything you can
love for God, ourselves, and about love. Think about it, talk
others. about it, and practice it! God is
love and when love is the theme of
God's Word teaches us to love our lives, HE is the theme also.
everyone, including ourselves. I
like to say, "Do not be in love with [THE EVERYDAY LIFE BIBLE, The
yourself, but love yourself in a Amplified Bible, Notes and Com-
balanced way." If you refuse to mentary by Joyce Meyer, Faith
love yourself, then you are not Words, New York, 2006].
do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my
own yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting
Iwhat lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press
on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which
God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward (Philippians 3:13-14).
The devil wants each of us to concentrate on how far we have fallen,
rather than how far we have risen. Satan wants us to focus on our
pasts instead of our futures and on how far we still have to go, rather
than how far we have come. He wants us to think about how many
times we fail, rather than how many times we succeed.
But God wants us to focus on our strengths and not our
weaknesses, our victories and not our losses, our joys and not our
problems.
Philippians 3:13,14 tells us that God wants us to press forward and
respond to His upward call and forget what lies behind us. Pay
attention to what you focus on and magnify the works of the Lord.
Do not believe the lies of the devil!
[THE EVERYDAY LIFE BIBLE, The Amplified Bible, Notes and
Commentary by Joyce Meyer, Faith Words, New York, 2006].