Your daily goal:
Philippians 3:14 “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
(Monday-Friday, from my morning quiet time, I will write a short thought for that day which I pray God will use to motivate you to ‘GO’ for that day. Your objective is simple…to GO…to GO OUT and share the love of Christ with someone in that day….to GO and bear fruit …to be light to the world.)
Today’s Daily Light
Jesus and Santa Claus
Since all of us big kids know that there really is no Santa Claus, then you won’t think me harsh or cruel to reference him today in my writing.
I meet a lot of professing Christians, or ‘believers’, who have this idea that Jesus is more like a Santa Claus than He is who He is. Their reason for believing in Him has more to do with what He can give than for who He is.
God the Father and Jesus both want us to love Jesus because He deserves and warrants our deepest level of love and devotion ‘more’ than any other person or combined group of people that we will ever love.
Jesus, God the Son, is Creator and Lord of the entire universe. Lord of all …say that again..Lord of ‘all’ creation. There is no one or nothing that even remotely/faintly compares to his power, majesty, and splendor in the totality of who He is. He is ‘beyond’ and over the top of what we can even imagine or understand as to His position as Lord and God over all of Creation. Wow.
Jesus wants us to love Him because He demands and deserves our love. He didn’t want this desire for us to love Him to come across to us as a dictatorial type mandate wherein we were forced to serve him without feelings simply because He is Lord and God of all. No. Not nearly…not even close to what He wants from us.
Jesus does not want us to love him ‘so that’ we get the big bag of ‘things’ that He gives us when we join the ‘believers club’. No. Not nearly…not even close to what He wants from us.
Jesus wants us to love Him so that we can experience His love..so that we can experience “HIM” in all of who he is and what He is. He holds the keys to all of the best goodies on the top shelf: eternal life, peace beyond understanding, power over death, joy unspeakable and full of glory, and He tells us that when we join the believers club, he will never leave us or forsake us and never cancel our membership. But…again…He doesn’t want us to love Him because of what he can give us. No..not nearly…not even close.
Jesus wants us to love Him because it is the highest and most noble thing we can do as a created being. Recognize, honor, worship, and love, our Creator, Lord, King of the universe because He is worthy. Loving Him is the thing of ‘best interest’ that we can do as a created being. It is the most expeditious activity as relates to our highest potential for overall well-being. Basically…it is what we were created for…to love God.
Jesus wants us to love Him because in the terms and conditions of His believers club…He can’t fully love us and give us all of who and what He is unless we love Him back with all our might, power, and strength. Oh…He loves us sooo much…that when we join the club…he does give us forgiveness and eternal life. Wow. What a introductory membership gift!!!
Jesus wants us to love Him because as our Creator…as the designer of our internal software program….He designed it so that the highest level of ‘living life’ experience can only come from loving Him to the point where we ‘want’ to keep His commandments and obey His ‘how to live life’ rules.
Romans 5:8 kind of sums it all up as to how much He loves us and how much He wanted to ‘invest’..in you and me loving Him back: Paul wrote.. “God demonstrated His love for us by doing this: while we were still sinners, Jesus died for us.” He loved us soooooooo much, before we ever knew Him, before we ever joined the club, that He died the death we deserved. Now ‘THAT‘ is love. He earned our love by taking your/my place and dying the death we deserve and giving us forgiveness and eternal life…but more than that…much more than that…He gave us Himself.
Christmas is not what He did or can do for us…it is what He is ‘to’ us. It is not what He gives us..but that He is our source and supply for love and life. It is He, Himself, Jesus…He ‘is’ our life and love.
Our Lord and God…I realize my love and devotion to you are paltry compared to your perfect love for me. Forgive me for that. You deserve my best and highest. I pray that you will energize me and give me the desire and ability to love you more, worship you more, and serve you more in this upcoming new year. In your ‘words’ to us in the bible…you say that we prove our love for you ‘by’ following your commands on ‘how’ to conduct our lives…how to love others. So I pray that all of us will spend more time in your ‘words’ this upcoming year ‘so that’ we will know more of how we can prove and demonstrate our love for you…so we will know ‘how’ to do that. I pray that for all of us. Thank you that you love us all so unconditionally and perfectly. Help us to come to deeply understand and know what John wrote for us in 1 John 4:19 ” We love…because He first loved us.” Amen
Happy New Year to all of you.
Let There Be Light 