“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5 NIV)
Nothing seems to “stir” our soul more profoundly than love. The passion, the power and the strength that comes from true love not only compels our emotions to higher levels but propels our deepest desires and awakens our purpose. When we love someone greater than we love ourselves, we pour out all that we possess knowing the return will be greater than the initial investment. While we cannot give with the expectation of receiving, true love always returns to us more than we could ever imagine.
God’s love is such an amazing reciprocating love, beyond words and without limits. While we may think we loved God first (we must take a step of faith to receive the love God has for us) it’s actually God who loved us, first. As a mother, I know firsthand about the unconditional love you have for a life you nurtured from birth to adulthood. There is absolutely nothing I won’t do for the benefit of my children. However, I expect (in a healthy way) my love to be reciprocated back from my children to me. If I don’t raise my children to understand that unconditional love is not just what you receive but what you give, then I have taught them nothing of value.
God has given us a way to experience healthy balanced love with Him through living for Him. Loving God with everything we possess (heart, soul and strength) returns the investment of God’s love for us back to Him while also refueling our body, mind and soul by the power of His love in us. Absolutely nothing “fuels” me more than the love of God. The best way that I know how to experience God’s love is through worshipping Him. Even though I could worship Him in the privacy of my home, through the natural beauty of His creation (the world I live in) or through my relationship with those I love, I gain so much more when I corporately worship Him with the body of Christ. What my “soul encounters” through corporate worship refuels every fiber of my being for the week to come. Corporate worship enables me to pour out the love of Christ in me onto those around me, in a selfless way that benefits those who may need it more than I realize. The outpouring of unity through song and the reading of God’s word reaches past every indifference, division and human flaw while leaning on the everlasting truth; God is love.
Thought to live by: God’s love is fuel to my soul.
“Who’s your Daddy; knowing God as Abba Father” is a devotional written by Pat Ferguson © Copyright 2011 Pat Ferguson
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