our love for God.

I’ve been reading a book called At His Feet by Chris Tiegreen that’s more of a daily devotional than a chaptered book. Something I read yesterday, based on John 21:15-17, stuck with me:

“What about us? Who among us has kept the great commandment [to love God] for even a few minutes? We may not consider ourselves grossly sinful. Yet the one thing we were created for—a deep, abiding, consuming love for God—eludes us while we busy ourselves with avoiding greed, pride, lust, anger, impatience, and a host of other sinful traits. We mistakenly think that the battle is fought on these fronts, so we spend our energy fighting symptoms when the ultimate source of our sickness is a loveless heart toward God, the most grievous sin of all. True discipleship is an outgrowth of love for Him. After years of trying to follow in Jesus’ steps, we may discover, like Peter, that Jesus values our affections even more than our works, for only out of the former do the latter flow. We find that to fail at this point is to experience ultimate failure, but to have our love for Him revived is to experience ultimate joy. Does Jesus’ piercing question [‘Do you love me?’-John 21:17] hit home? Ask Him to kindle in your heart an abiding love for Him.”

This passage hit me pretty hard. It’s true—we busy ourselves with the “process” of our faith by avoiding things that we forget the source of our strength. The One who saves is our only chance for winning the battles of greed, pride, lust, anger, impatience, etc. What is said here resounds. A refocusing is needed. The greatest commandment is to first love God and then, secondarily, people (Matthew 22:37-39). I like the way that Tiegreen puts it: “Jesus values our affections even more than our works, for only out of the former do the latter flow.” It’s a simple concept, but one that I find myself often neglecting. It’s way too easy to forget God’s relentless love for us and even easier to forget that we are commanded to love Him first, even when we’re attempting to clean up our own filth. He’s always there to save us and to truly win our battles, we must first love Him and receive His rescue.

It’s safe to say I need to refocus a lot of things, especially entering a semester that could be one of my busiest yet. May love and praise for the one true God be in every breath. Praise is not only a habit, but what we were created for.

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2. breathingleaves said: This really really spoke to me, thank you
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6. mayhopearise said: Thx for sharing Kyle!
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