After my previous post about love being the missing piece, what makes all the difference in the ability to persevere and overcome such as King David was able to do, you might be asking yourself a question or two. You might be thinking,” All that is well and good, but exactly how do I gain more love for God? What if I just don’t have or feel the great love that I need or want to have? To love God like He deserves seems impossible……..like reaching for the stars.”
Well, I want to encourage you with the truth that you don’t have to manufacture this kind of love. I want to go as far as to say I don’t think any of us can! It is beyond us! The encouragement is that we don’t have to!!
I want to share with you how I found the way to love that seemed so intangible. I too at one time did not feel great emotion for the Lord, at least not personal and intimate. I was grateful. I respected Him. I revered Him. I loved Him as much as I could. But that was the problem. It was not enough. It was not what I saw in the Bible.
The love I saw in David’s life was not what I had in my life. The love I saw described by Jesus in Matthew 22:37 was not what I felt. So now what? Was I to be like Solomon and just try to focus on doing my best? Being a good Christian?
But wait a minute, I already know that does not work. That is not good enough to help me make it through in my life of faith. If it didn’t work for Solomon, who was so full of wisdom, then it probably would not be enough to help persevere and overcome my weak flesh.
So that is when I began to consider other Scripture. If Jesus says in Matthew 7:7-8, ” Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened”, then maybe there IS a way to this great love for me. Add to this John 15:7, ” If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given you.”
I began to consider the power and hope from these two Scriptures. If God’s greatest commandment for me is to love Him with ALL my heart, soul, mind and strength, then wouldn’t He help me do this?! If King David’s love for the Lord was to be our example, showing us what we COULD have as well, then surely He would enable this to be within reach. Maybe it all begins with asking, seeking and knocking.
And that is what I did. I asked for this passion I saw in the lives of the great men and women of the Bible. I asked for it by using the very Scripture He was commanding me to obey. I would say, ” Lord, I pray to love you with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. I ask that you pour your love into my heart with the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5) so that it overflows and spills out. I pray for a passion for you and your Word.” Ephesians 3:14-21 was also a great passage about this love to pray.
I prayed this prayer everyday for several months. At first, I did not see any change in my heart. But I kept asking, seeking, and knocking anyway. It was a test of my will. Did I want this enough to keep praying? Did I want it enough to go to the trouble to keep asking? Or would I just lose interest and give up?
I remember one day late in the afternoon, thinking to myself, “Oh I need to go read my Bible and have my quiet time with the Lord”. Then my next thought was that I had already had my time with Him that morning. In that next moment I realized something profound; I had already obliged what I should do, but now I wanted to do it again! I wanted MORE time with Him! What I had that morning was not enough!
I had my passion! My prayers had been answered!
That, my friends, is how I found my way to love…..and I have never been the same since!
Ask for what you want, and God will show YOU the way to love. You can have what you never thought possible, what seems higher than the heavens. But you have to ask….seek….and knock, until one day, you too will run back for more time with Him.
He is a good God. He has already provided the Way (John 14:6) through His Son. He will also provide the way to love. May we all be able to say like David (Psalm 63:3), “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.”
Until that day……
