Our testament or testimony or truth in Omaha, Kansas City, Albuquerque, Scranton, Bakersfield and even listeners in Europe – is this, God is our first love. This is the truth. If we have moved away from God in the last months or years, we can run back to our rightful place. Because God is our first love. We declare it and decree it.
God warns us in revelations 2:4 to the church in ephesus – yet i hold this against you…you have forsaken the love you had at first. consider how far you have fallen. repent, do the things you did at first .
we see here a place that was close and then we move away from that place and we gotta get back to the first love place.
Life with God is not a honeymoon that gets over…sorry ii hear alot of people say that…but it is not true…God in fact also speaks about a heart condition that is called lukewarn in rev 3:16 and he does not like that or expect that from us.
Jesus is not looking for fans who know stuff about him. he is looking for lovers.
How do we know if we are loving God with our whole heart ? Go to ER for a anjioplasty ? It will not work
Matthew 22:37 declares the who God is and who we are. God is love and loving always…so he says to us not as a trite idea, but as a charge, a command, to love God with all of our heart and our soul and our mind. God is not cruel and would never ask us to do something we cannot do.
This command or charge or life purpose began back in Deuteronomy 6:5 and 10:12 with the Hebrew people who proved to the world then that people can walk with God and follow God and show the world how much God loves his people, his children.
Deuteronomy 4:29 says, if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. [soul is mind will emotions]. So again we see that if we half hearted seek God it is not going to bring us to the place with God and in God where we belong. We are dwellers in Gods heart not visitors or once in a while drive by guests.
God does not like our leftovers or stale bread. This whole heart love for God is like the smell of fresh bread each day. We are not to be in a guilt trip when we ask God am I loving you with my whole heart Lord. For in Romans 8:1-4 we know there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. God forbid we would feel guilt and shame about our very relationship with God. That is aweful and very sad and not the plan of God at all.
God loves us with His whole heart all the time. The Bible says He is close to the close and close to the far. Jeremiah 30:21, Isa 40:11 and Psalm 34:14.
Lets hear from a friend and listener in Rancho Cuchomonga CA Dayna Belcher, psalmist and author.
We are drawn and magnetized towards Him. We long for His nearness and not opposed to him or going away from Him, we find ourselves longing for what he desires, what he wants for us and others, and we want to please God.
Here are ten action verbs that a leader in Sydney suggested this week to move closer to God:
anticipation, attend to God, absorb God, appreciate God, apply God, aid God, be hungry for God, be receptive to God, lift up your hands to heaven and go up higher with God, surrender to God and with God and stop arm wrestling against his presence.
CURIOSITY FOR GOD AND WITH GOD – I am very curious and my book Lean In Closer With God because you can has bunches of stories from my life with God that grow from constant curiosity about what God is like and how he feels.
this week i wrote to God in my journal , i want to learn something brand new about you Lord. Please , Please please. Sure enough last night I saw what He showed me. I had a tangible sense of the very Sovereignty of God. I sensed a lot of people worshiping God in USA.
Gods attributes are always flowing equally and never plugged up. But we as humans have to try to grasp who God is. Well I could sense in a circumstance God saying to our nation – this is going to happen. So join in with me to pray for what I am praying.
Hebrews 7:25 says – God always lives to intercede for us. So as I am so curious with God I have asked him if it were not too personal to ask Jesus what he is praying to the Father about for me ? After all the will of God is what Jesus is asking the Father for each of us. So when we agree with God in our life and testimony…wella…heaven opens and comes down. that is what the Lords prayer means when we are taught to pray on earth as it is in heaven…. and when God says asks anything in my name.
Lets hear from another couple in Arizona, Phoenix, who love this ministry about how they would understand a whole heart in love with God. Dr Becky and Gary Slabaugh, share this”
Lets close in prayer for one another.
Lord in Eccl 3:6 there is a time to search and a time to give up. Lord help us to give up moving away from you. Like the woman with the jar of precious ointment, let us sit at your feet and be a precious aroma to you. We chose today to sit down and slow down to be with you.
Forgive us Lord for half hearts of love for you and lead us not into condemnation of self in the desire to draw near to you. Eccl 3:8 says Lord there is a time for love. So be it Lord. A time for love. A time for first love love.
We chose to receive you in your fullness of love today Lord. We chose to give you our daytimer, google calendar, cell phone or whatever we need to lay down to snuggle up close to you.
