When we value God above all else, when we see Him as the most precious thing, as the end not the means, then we will serve God out of a pure heart of love.
This, then, becomes our goal, to "want to" give God glory and honor with our whole lives; because we treasure Him above all else, He is the priority of our existence.
The question becomes, how do we best accomplish this? How do we acquire the "want to"?
The Bible declares that one day we will become like Him, for we will see Him as He is (1 John 3:2). The Bible says that we will know Him even as we are known (1 Corinthians 13:12).
In applying this, I take this to mean that in this life, if we are to love Him more, if we are to become more like Him, then we must seek His face.
The "old paths" (Jeremiah 6:16) of Bible reading and study, prayer, and the fellowship of other saints, especially at worship gatherings, are critically important. We mature using these means. As we mature from little children to young men, and eventually to fathers, spiritually (Galatians 4 / 1 John 2), Christ will be formed (Galatians 4:19) in us and we will love Him more.
The "want to" is a matter of
Desire,
Diligence,
Discipline.
These can be perverted by (respectively)
Mysticism,
Legalism,
Asceticism.
It can indeed be a fine line.
May God bless you, as we know that He that began a good work will complete it (Philippians 1:6), and in accordance with that promise, we forget what is behind and press on towards the mark (Philippians 3:14).
Even So...
This, then, becomes our goal, to "want to" give God glory and honor with our whole lives; because we treasure Him above all else, He is the priority of our existence.
The question becomes, how do we best accomplish this? How do we acquire the "want to"?
The Bible declares that one day we will become like Him, for we will see Him as He is (1 John 3:2). The Bible says that we will know Him even as we are known (1 Corinthians 13:12).
In applying this, I take this to mean that in this life, if we are to love Him more, if we are to become more like Him, then we must seek His face.
The "old paths" (Jeremiah 6:16) of Bible reading and study, prayer, and the fellowship of other saints, especially at worship gatherings, are critically important. We mature using these means. As we mature from little children to young men, and eventually to fathers, spiritually (Galatians 4 / 1 John 2), Christ will be formed (Galatians 4:19) in us and we will love Him more.
The "want to" is a matter of
Desire,
Diligence,
Discipline.
These can be perverted by (respectively)
Mysticism,
Legalism,
Asceticism.
It can indeed be a fine line.
May God bless you, as we know that He that began a good work will complete it (Philippians 1:6), and in accordance with that promise, we forget what is behind and press on towards the mark (Philippians 3:14).
Even So...
5 comments:
Sorry to see that we couldn't get some discussion going on the KJV Only shibboleth. "How" the different translations came about doesn't alter my faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob but I think a lot of us are a bit ignorant about how the different translations came to be. I would have enjoyed the commentary.
I appreciate your approach to how we can "Love Him Even More"....it's balanced. I think some of us Christians are having an "identity crisis" (in Christ) because we've allowed some of our cultures' views influence our thinking on how we are to "love Him".....mysticism, legalism, asceticism. I guess that would be a form of idolatry in that we're trying to mold a God in a image that suits us. It's been in the last few years that I've realized that's exactly what I've been doing.
I'm pressing on..........
Hey thanks for posting this on my blog...I know the people that read it got a lot out of it!
Amen. This post states the simple reality of "how to love Christ more" very succinctly. This is the only method I know of to truly mature to not only love Christ more, but love LIKE Christ more. Well said, Even So.
Good point, Steve, and may I say, I'm glad to see you back over here.
I like the simple D words in contrast with the isms. Very good.
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