All in Love, or Fruit
Jesus loves us, this sounds like such a simple statement, and is indeed the repeating theme of a childish worship song whose lyrics begin “Jesus loves me this I know”, but do we really know this? Do we understand the depth and complexity of His love for us? A bigger question is, how do we experience this love.
What nourishes your faith? What does you Spirit consume for strength? When we go to the Lord’s table we are feeding our souls His flesh and blood, and this sustenance bring us life, eternal life. To consume the body of Christ is to bring Him inside us... to allow Him to dwell within us. Communion, it is the life giving force of the Christian experience.
Do you understand how precious you are to God? As you go about the process of worshipping Him, and building your faith in Him, do you realize that He is working to bring you to Himself with even greater vigor? We readily accept that Jesus is the Son of God, but can we actually admit to ourselves that God could love the fallen men and women we are? Can we accept that the blood of Christ was freely offered, and has completely cleansed us? Can we receive the gift of grace without question?
How much of ourselves have we given to God in love? Do we conform to His will in all things, or only as much as we think it will take to please Him? Jesus was the most amazing and incredible man to have ever lived, and yet He subjected Himself in His entirety to God... He leads us in understanding the true nature of God’s expectation of us. He demonstrates what it means to be a loving Child of God.
Do you know Jesus? Have you developed a relationship with God? Are you confident in your faith and feel like you have a handle on it? If you answered yes to the first two questions, that is exciting and wonderful. If you answered yes to the third then you are in for some big surprises as you read on.
Are you approaching your faith through study and hard work to further perfect yourself each day? Every evening during your evening prayers do you kneel before God and tell Him of your progress? If this is so, and it is all you do, He will speak words similar to these back to you...”Yes, but when I walked in the garden where were you?” or, “As I love you, do you love me?” God wants our journey towards perfection to be a manifestation of our relationship with Him; our perfection is not His ultimate goal.
If you live according to the commandments, are you owed righteousness and everlasting life? How can we be so bold as to feel this way when into the vile pit of sin, and human debasement Jesus walked, suffered, took on sin, died, and was raised again... all for us in our undeserving state. He loved us first, he chose us in love before the creation of the world, and knew us while we were yet in our mother’s womb. How is it we feel entitled?