Being Filled With the Love of God

I must confess, there is something I have a passion about. Don't be surprised if you see more posts along the lines of the topic of this post.

I know the reason why we struggle. Oh, we may not be disciplined. We may not be spending the time necessary with God, or whatever. When it comes down to it, though, ultimately you will only really have success in the Christian life as much as you believe and have received the love of God.

I am not talking about whether or not you believe God is loving. People the world over believe that, in some kind of theoretical way. I am saying you need to live off of it. You need to experience it. You need to be transformed by it. When it comes down to it, what we do is based on what we really believe. If you believe that God is your critic you will always be trying to impress him by doing more, which really doesn't impress him at all. If you believe he is distant you will always wonder what he's thinking and will be trying to get his attention. If your life isn't deeply rooted in the love of God, your life is likely to go one of two directions: you will either fall to some kind of addiction, depression, etc. or you will become increasingly religious with little tolerance for the weakness in others. Either way you are on dangerous turf.

Having got your attention, I have thought long and hard about how best to convey God's love to you so that you can experience it for yourself. You see, I am talking about the ultimate lover. This is a person who can turn someone who is as wounded as I was and make him into something of a minister. In order for you to believe that my life is something of a miracle, I need to tell you a little about my history. You see, when I was growing up I was serially abused by my peers in school. I learned to hide behind my intellect and my pride. More than anything in the world, I hurt. Badly hurt. And then in came this wonderful man Jesus. There hasn't been anyone in my life like him! He is just so gentle. No matter where I was, whether I was angry or crazy he has always been there. He is just so patient. At last I met someone who accepted me at face value, who loved me with my ideosyncracies, who just enjoyed hanging out. The truth is, he is the love of my life. Through him I received a ton of healing and that has helped me become a much better friend to my friends. Through his love I have matured tremendously.

The truth is, you have to experience it for yourself. You need to hear his voice on your own. A good book to read is "Dialog with God" by Mark Virkler. It will teach you the fundamentals. It is possible I may decide to reread that book and do some posts on hearing God's voice- if you are interested in this, send me an email and that will show me it is worth the effort of rereading it. If there is anything I can impress upon you, it's that knowing God intimately, hearing his voice, and knowing his love is absolutely critical for you to do what you are called to do. Don't live another day without it!

Your companion in Christ,
Sean