So if everything in God (perfect doctrine, walking in all the counsel and ways of God, giving everything away and yet possessing all things, being of one heart and one mind with God and with eachother) belongs to lovers…to those he calls beloved…to those Jesus allowed the very breath of life to be choked and bled out of him for….
Then there is no question Jesus wants a deeper communion. He’s after your heart, your heart, your heart, your heart, your heart. It is so easy to fall in love and stay there as long as that’s all you really want out of life anyway.
The easy part for me seems to be my heart getting complacent. Do you have any personal experiences or things God has taught you that would help a brother in the areas of falling and staying in love with God?
If the relationship is depending in any way on us generating love for God, it will fail (or at least grow cold). Jesus is so specific that we dwell in his love.
As you can see from people’s responses, whenever the passion and fire of our love is brought into question - we always go back to the point where we first fell in love with God. This is good! The only problem is where we think we’re supposed to work up the same feelings we had back then. As if God didn’t really hope for us to progress in relationship with him and the best we could do is live in conversion nostalgia!
What God’s really directing us to is our first love - which is actually his love for us. Dwelling in that love will never allow you to grow complacent. And complacency is a symptom, not a judgment - so if you feel any degree of complacency or coldness or numbness, start thanking God for the depth of his love towards you - and don’t let go of that! There is nothing so close to Father’s heart as one of his children asking sincerely to be able to dwell in his love.
Thanks for reminding me that it’s not that we initially loved God, but that He first Loved Us. My weakness become strength as I realize that each area I can’t do on my own results in dependence on Him.
Open wide my door, my Lord.