In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord… —Isaiah
6:1
“What I need is God’s surgical procedure— His use of
external circumstances to bring about internal purification. Your priorities
must be God first, God second, and God third, until your life is continually
face to face with God and no one else is taken into account whatsoever.” OSWALD
CHAMBERS
If I were to tell you that You must love God with all your heart,
mind, soul and strength, you would most certainly nod your head in agreement or maybe
even shout amen. Actually Jesus said
that. Read Matthew 22:37-39. He said that all the law .. the essence of the
direction that God has given us .. the foundation of our life with respect to
God and man is summed up in two commands … Love God, first and love others next. As you well know, that level of relationship
is not automatic .. you can’t just flip a switch. It requires that each of us lay our own life
down - daily. There is an old hymn that goes “All
to Jesus I surrender. All to Him I freely
give. I will ever love and trust
Him. In His presence daily live.” In John 21 Jesus asked Peter, three times, “Do
you love me?” Recall Peter denied Jesus
three times before Jesus’ crucifixion. We
need to be careful about our attitude toward Peter – wondering “How could Peter
deny his relationship with Jesus so easily?”
We should be careful lest we go the “way
of Peter”. When Peter denied
Jesus he feared men more than God.
Remember, Peter was on his own at that point. After Pentecost, Peter was filled with the
Spirit of God. The same Spirit that
inhabits every Believer. What God asks you
to do, you cannot do on your own … it is spiritual that manifests itself in the
natural. We look at the natural …
everyday living … as if it is separate from the spiritual .. it is not.
Everything we do, think, speak, and desire must be in the
context of who God is and our love for Him.
God’s expectation for that level of devotion is not reserved for the
super-saints or the zealots …. It’s for me and for you. You want to know what’s missing in your new
life? At the root, it’s the level of your love for
God. CHARLEY
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