"When you are truly in love, you go to great lengths to be with the one you love. You'll drive for hours to be together, even if it's only for a short while. You don't mind staying up late to talk. Walking in the rain is romantic, not annoying. You'll willingly spend a small fortune on the one you're crazy about. When you are apart from each other, it's painful, even miserable. He or she is all you think about; you jump at any chance to be together."
"In his book God Is the Gospel, John Piper asks whether we are in love with God: The critical question for our generation-and for every generation-is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?"
Love. Don't we all love it? Don't we all crave it? And isn't that what God wants for us-to crave this relationship with Him as we crave all genuine love relationships? "Isn't that what brings Him glory-when believers desires Him and are not merely slaves who serve Him out of obligation?"
God wants to change us; He died so that we could change but the answer lies in letting Him change you. "Come near to God and he will come near to you" (Revelation 3:20). What Francis Chan is trying to share with us is that we all need God to help us love God. And if we need his help to love Him then we will definitely need help to love others. It is a continuous cycle: "Our prayers for more love result in love, which naturally causes us to pray more, which results in more love..." When we are pursuing Christ, running toward Christ, we are free to serve, love, and give thanks without guilt, worry, or fear. "As long as we are pursuing Him, we are satisfied in Him. It is when we stop actively loving Him that we find ourselves restless and gravitating toward other means of fulfillment." But there will be times when we gravitate away from Christ but Jesus reminds us that he has come to overcome the world.
"From the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations." (Malachi 1:11 NASB) God deserves excellence and he doesn't need to beg or plead with us to receive it. In other words we are the ones that should be begging to worship in His presence. An incredible promise we get from God is in Malachi 3:10 where it says, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouses, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,' says the Lord of hosts, 'if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows." God is telling His people to test Him, to try to out-give Him. He knows it is impossible, that no one can out-give the One from whom all things come. God knows people will realize that "we have given you only what comes from your hands" (1 Chronicles 29:14) Take on this challenge: If you really want to experience God's supernatural provision, then do as He says. Test Him. Give more than you can manage, and see how He responds."
"If you merely pretend that you enjoy God or love Him, He knows. You can't fool Him; don't even try. Instead, tell Him how you feel. Tell Him that He isn't the most important thing in this life to you, and that you're sorry for that. Tell Him that you've been lukewarm, that you've chosen________ over Him time and again. Tell Him that you want Him to change you, that you long to genuinely enjoy Him. Tell Him how you want to experience true satisfaction and pleasure and joy in your relationship with Him. Tell Him you want to love Him more than anything on this earth. Tell Him you want to treasure the kingdom of heaven so much that you'd willingly sell everything in order to get it. Tell Him what you like about Him, what you appreciate, and what brings you joy.
I leave you with something to reflex on and maybe even pray to God about.
"Jesus, I need to give myself up. I am not strong enough to love You and walk with You on my own. I can't do it, and I need You. I need You deeply and desperately. I believe You are worth it, that You are better than anything else I could have in this life or the next. I want You. And when I don't, I want to want You. Be all in me. Take all of me. Have YOUR WAY WITH ME."
*Quotes taken from Crazy Love: Overwhelmed By A Relentless God By Francis Chan
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