It's a holiday Monday morning in my part of the world so I want to share with you something simple yet profound. I want to write about something revealed yet mysterious. I want to disclose to you the easy yet complicated. I wish on this rainy Monday morning to reveal the simplistic path to a deep, long-lasting and incredibly inspiring relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
First, you must be absolutely convinced that the Father loves you. With no doubt hidden away in your heart you must be able to accept and celebrate that love. It may seem too simplistic but we are a complicated creature, often refusing to receive what is best for us. This is no ordinary love. It's not like your mother or father's love. It's not like your spouse's love. It's not like any other love you have ever experienced. This is an extraordinary love that pushes past everything to plant itself in your heart to bring out the very best from you. It reveals and forgives everything that you were and transforms you into what God created you to be.
His love is special beyond words:
Love is patient .................................Love is kind ......................................... It does not envy .................... ..................... It does not boast ............................ It is not proud ............................. It is not rude ............. It is not self-seeking .............................. It is not easily angered .................... It keeps not record of wrongs .................................. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth ................................................. It always protects ............ Always trusts .............. Always hopes ........................... Always perseveres ................................................................................................................................................. ................................................. Love never fails .............................................................
Can you imagine such a love so lavishly poured out into your heart? That is God's love for you. That is the love that sent the Son and that is the love that kept the Son obedient to the task. That is the love that nailed him to the cross and that is the love that kept him there. But it is also the love that released him from the grave so that he could prepare a place for us. It is this love that sets us free from all the complications of our rudimentary life and transforms us into the children of God. This love is for you and no one else will ever be able to love you so completely.
The question then becomes, how do we respond to such a lavish love? How could we possibly match it? On what level are we able to show to our Father that we accept and respond to this love? The Son told us how. He took all the complications of man's failed attempts to love God and brought it into the simplicity of love:
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." (Mark 12:30)
Not complicated; love him with your entire being, with no holds barred, with all your passion and energy. Love him like no other, which you can do because his love provokes trust in you and there has to be trust for total abandonment in love. You must become as vulnerable to God as he has become to you. There can be nothing that you love greater than him. Jesus said that this heart response to his love must make all other love pale in comparison so that they almost look like hate when held next to it. This is not something you can provoke in yourself but is a provoked response by his love for us, which you must be totally convinced of.
Unfortunately most people leave it there but there is a third step in the simplistic understanding, acceptance and response to God's love. It involves other people. It comes from the fact that it is impossible to hold in God's love just for ourselves. The river of love is too great to dam up and keep to ourselves. It must be free flowing. It must be continually filling up, pouring out and filling up again. In summing up all the laws and prophecies Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God but there is a second that is similar to the first and comes when we are convinced of his love for us:
"The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" (Mark 12:31)
There is no getting around this. It takes nothing really for us to love God in expressing our adoration through worship, studying his Word, spending time in prayer. Those are all things we can control and do between us and God, but to love our 'neighbour' is a real exercise in the maturity of our love. This is where we can find complications in the simplicity. It is simple, 'love your neighbour' but when we understand that we have to love them with the love of the Lord, as defined above, we begin to see the cost of it. Jesus told us that his love should provoke us to go beyond loving those who love us and actually sincerely and sacrificially love those who hate us, and even those who set out to destroy us.
If you spend any time in the Word you soon discover that the real measure of your love for God is not how emotional you get in worship but instead in how much you give yourself to your enemy. This is maturity. John says that if you hate your brother you do not love God. Remember this love says that you hold nothing against them, that you do not even remember in action the hurt they caused. This love means that you desire the best for those who come against you, that you desire to protect them, to see them saved. It cost Jesus the cross to show us, his enemy at the time, the depth of his love. Why would you expect that it would cost us anything less?
If you are able to follow these three steps you will soon discover the simplistic profoundness of our incredible relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If you keep on this path you will go through some very difficult lessons, lessons meant for your benefit, to help you mature in this love. At the end of the day it is this love that defines us because without it we are nothing and we have gained nothing. This love cleanses us of all the complicated emotions that come from self-seeking and declutters our relationship with God and others. It is that simple and we make it that complicated. So, starting today, let go of everything that hinders you and let God overwhelm you with his love. The first step is the most important.
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