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What does God Want
- From me ?
Compiled by Rachel Cory-Kuehl, November 28, 2012
Recent Edit: January 9, 2022
Scripture quoted from the NKJV unless otherwise noted.
“Faith” is a word we use to describe a relationship with God as with a person well known. Faith implies an attitude toward God of love, trust, and deep admiration. It means having enough confidence in God, based upon the more than adequate evidence revealed, to be willing to believe whatever He says, to accept whatever He offers, and to do whatever He asks–without reservation–for the rest of eternity. Anyone who has such faith is perfectly safe to save. This is why faith is the only requirement for heaven.
I heard this from a Bible teacher many years ago. Graham Maxwell perhaps. Anyway-forgive me for not remembering. At least I remembered the concept.
1. God wants you to believe that He exists.
2. God wants you to believe He is trustworthy.
3. God wants you to believe that He loves you, and always has your best interest at heart.
4. God wants you to read what He said, and what was said - about Him.
5. God wants you to acknowledge your absolute need of Him.
6. God wants you to give Him permission to change you in mind and heart.
WHERE TO START?
If you like nature or science, start with the evolution/creation debate. The amount of information discovered in recent years, is astounding. Go to our resources page. Ask HIM straight out, to show you that HE exists. If you are open to the truth, HE will.
If you like history, try our resources page on archeology. The Bible is real history. More and more discoveries are supporting the Biblical record.
The death of God’s only Son was the greatest love-letter of all time. To believe the resurrection actually happened, takes abit of study. Try one of the books or videos on our Faith Support page. My favorite book there is “The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus” by Gary Habermas. A great resource!
Maybe you are happy with your life, and feel no need to know whether God exists. In that case, what are you doing on this website, reading this article? It has been my experience, that most folks don’t know how much they need HIM. But maybe you’re one of the blessed ones, and you’re not perfectly happy with your life or your state of mind, as it is. Maybe your life, or your mind, is a mess. In that case, you may respond to the drawing that we all feel, but most ignore. HE did promise, “You will search for me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).
Ezekiel 36:26 “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (ESV).
HE won’t do this without YOUR PERMISSION. To do so would be manipulation. If HE was going to use that “easy button,” then HE should have done it in the Garden of Eden, and skipped all this painful learning process. Try our study: Tough Love. David’s prayer is a good place to start.
Psalm 51:10-11 “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”
Once you know that HE exists, then you’ll want to know what HE really expects of you.
It’s a very short answer: Love. He wants to pour HIS love into you, and through you, to others.
John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.”
John 13:35 “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 15:12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
Deuteronomy 6:5 “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (NIV) (See also Matthew 22:37.)
John 14:15 [Jesus speaking] “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”
Leviticus 19:18 “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” (NIV) (See also Matthew 22:39.)
Matthew 5:44-46 “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? (NIV)
Mark 12:33 “And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” (NKJ)
THE COMMANDMENTS ARE SUMMED UP IN THIS
Romans 13:9 [Paul speaking] “For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Romans 13:10 “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
To “Keep the commandments” is to “Love one another.”
To “Keep My commandments” is to “Love Me.”
WITHOUT LOVE
1 Corinthians 13:1 “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.”
Any talent or gift we might have - if not used with love - is useless, or even harmful.
1 Corinthians 13 “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.
And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
BUT WE ARE SELFISH BY NATURE.
HOW CAN WE LOVE?
1 John 4:12 “If we love one another, God abides in us . . .”
1 John 4:16 “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”
Romans 5:5 “and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (NRS)
Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love.”
Ephesians 3:17-19 “ . . . that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
HE LOVES US
1 John 4:9 “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.”
John 3:16 “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life.”
1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Romans 8:35 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”
Romans 8:38-39 “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
All these are words on paper. How do we experience the love of God?
LET’S GET PRACTICAL: HOW DO WE EXPERIENCE THE LOVE OF GOD?
And assuming God made us in His image, how does HE experience our love for HIM?
“The Five Love Languages” by Gary Chapman
1. QUALITY TIME:
When you read His Word, you are spending “quality time” with HIM.
2. WORDS OF AFFIRMATION
Thanks, praise, simple recognition, appreciation
3. ACTS OF SERVICE
Whatever your talent or gift - you can use it in HIS service.
You can use it to help others.
4. TOUCH
Just a gentle hug can lift a person’s spirits. My mother was a big touch person.
5. GIFTS
Food for the hungry. Surgery for the blind or disfigured.
Money to take the gospel to the ignorant. Gifts for others are gifts for HIM.
Isaiah 63:9 “In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the Angel of His Presence saved them; In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; And He bore them and carried them All the days of old.”
Remember: When a human being is hurting - God is hurting.
Matthew 25:40 “And the King will answer and say to them,`Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’”
TOUGH LOVE
To love is to act with self-less intent. What is “good” for the object of our love, does not always feel warm and comfortable and reassuring. The most difficult kind of love to “give,” is tough love. To allow a child (or anyone who has not fully learned) to suffer painful consequences, resulting from his choices - is hard on a parent or teacher, assuming he feels love or affection for the child or learner. Often, the giver of such “love” feels the pain more acutely than the object of that love. I invite you to consider how our Father in Heaven has felt, for all the years that He has administered a heavy dose of “tough love.”
Please see our study “Tough Love.”
We pray this study will prove a blessing.
Prophecy Viewpoint
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