Devotional 120209

Dear brothers and sisters,
Good morning. The weather is beautiful after the rain. Everything seems to be so crystal clear under the sun. The more I find assurance in His love, the more I am delivered from my worry. God desires us to enjoy His presence so that we will find strength to deal with different challenges in life. I want to cast my concerns to God each day, even though I still carried them on my own shoulder from time to time. As a result, anxiety builds up within me. It is totally unnecessary. But I invited those worries into my own life. How stupid I am to try to take on the world by my own strength. In the warmth of His love, I learn to relax and simply enjoy His intimate walk with me. Praise the Lord!

And they said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die" (Exodus 20:19). We do not consciously disobey God; we simply do not pay attention to Him. God has given us His commands; there they are, but we do not pay any attention to them, not because of willful disobedience but because we do not love and respect Him. "If you love me, you will obey what I command" (John 14:15). When once we realize that we have been "disrespecting" God all the time, we are covered with shame and humiliation because we have not paid attention to Him.

"Speak to us yourself ... But do not have God speak to us " We show how little we love God by preferring to listen to His servants only. We like to listen to personal testimonies, but we do not desire that God Himself should speak to us. Why are we so terrified lest God should speak to us? Because we know that if God does speak, either the thing must be done or we must tell God we will not obey Him. If it is only the servant's voice we hear, we feel it is not imperative, we can say, "Well, that is simply your own idea, though I don't deny it is probably God's truth too."

Am I putting God in the humiliating position of having treated me as a child of His while all the time I have been ignoring Him? When I do hear Him, the humiliation I have put on Him comes back on me - "Lord, why was I so dull and so stubborn?" This is always the result when once we do hear God. The real delight of hearing Him is tempered with shame in having been so long in hearing Him.

Have mercy on us O Lord. How often did we pay attention to your command and obey? We like to hear great messages delivered by eloquent speakers, or read great books that illustrated your truth. But if we do not obey what we hear, it is still just another man’s talk or opinion. Not until I sincerely love you wholeheartedly, I will still take your word for granted. My love for you is not measured by how much I know the Bible, but how much I obey your Word or your Command. Instead of giving me more ‘power’ to do your will, strengthen my love for you even more. If there is love there is a will.

God knows how limited our will and ability are, when He expects us to love Him with all our mind, all our soul, all our heart and all our strength. When we determine to love Him with the best of our ability and knowledge, He will add on to what we lack. The bottom line is how much do we love Him by obeying His Word? Don’t worry on whether we will love Him tomorrow or not. We have no control of it. And God does not hold me responsible for the unknow future. Love Him one day at a time. Obey Him one day at a time. The more we yield to our excuse and worry, the more we ignore God and paralyze our determination to obey His Word today. Let’s do it now.

Love you because He first loves us,
Lawrence