When our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was asked by a teacher of religious law, “What is the most important commandment?” He answered in Mark 12:29-30(NLT), “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” There is only one true and living God, and the ‘Great I Am’ is it. He is Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, and He is Yahweh; the Creator of all and the owner of everything that exists. He is our Abba Father, and Jesus Christ commands that our love for and towards God is our greatest motivation and achievement.
It’s wonderful to know that as God’s children, He has empowered us through the Holy Spirit to love Him in a way that pleases Him. Romans 5:5(NLT) tells us, “And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.” When we confess with our mouths that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we believe with our hearts that God raised him from the dead, we are born again! We become God’s children, and He sends the Holy Spirit to come and live inside us. This is a miraculous transformation, one that we are not able to explain, but we experience it in a very real way. Within a moment, we are transferred from death to eternal life by the power of God’s love, and we are never the same.
2John 1:6(NLT) tells us, “Love means doing what God has commanded us, and he has commanded us to love one another, just as you heard from the beginning.” Our Heavenly Father created us and gave us these extraordinary bodies that house our souls, spirits, and the Holy Spirit once we become born again. Our bodies also allow us to relate to one another and to relate to the world around us, and this makes life so enjoyable. All this is due to our Father’s masterful design, and it teaches us that as His children, God created us with relationship in mind. He’s made it possible not only for us to relate to one another, but to relate to Him.
There’s nothing that we can add to our Heavenly Father. He’s God all by Himself, and He doesn’t need anything from anyone to be exactly who He is. So, the relationship we have with Him isn’t one where He depends on us, but rather we depend on Him. The Apostle Paul proclaimed in Philippians 4:19(NLT), “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.” Our Heavenly Father takes care of all our needs, and we could never repay Him for His overwhelming grace towards us, and He doesn’t expect us to. What He does expect is that we will respond to His love by growing deeper in it.
God tells us in Ephesians 5:2(NLT), “Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.” When we received the infilling of the Holy Spirit, we didn’t just receive a drip of love, Romans 5:5 tells us that it was poured out and shed abroad in our hearts. We are filled to overflowing with God’s love, and now we have the spiritual ability to love Him and others as Christ does. 2Peter 1:3-4(NLT) says, “3 By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 4 And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires.”
Through Christ, God has given us His love nature, and we have all that we need to live life to the fullest! He is continually introducing us to His vision of who we really are in Christ, and we will never stop growing deeper in His love if we strive to be obedient and please Him. Our Heavenly Father has made it possible for us to demonstrate our honor and gratitude to Him by always choosing to be patient, kind, generous, and forgiving in our everyday lives. So, let’s remember to celebrate that we’re empowered through God’s love to make a difference in the lives of others, and most importantly, we’re empowered to love Him the way He deserves to be loved. Through Christ, God has changed us forever, and now every day presents a new opportunity to grow deeper in His love and see the blessings of it manifested in our lives. ■
Holy Bible, New Living Translation copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
“Growing Deeper in God’s Love”, written by Fran Mack. Edits by Kim Times and K. Stephens for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2024. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.