Don's Devotionals: Learning to love God

Psalm 27:1  Yahweh is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? Yahweh is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?  (World English Bible)

David spent years living with the reality that men were pursuing him to kill him.  King Saul wanted him dead.  Even though an army besieged him, he wrote, “…my heart will not  fear.”  Although bravery played a role in this, there is far more to it than that.  At the
center of his life was Yahweh, and He made all the difference.  David was “a man after His own heart”.

This verse describes such a marvelous and practical aspect of our life in Christ.  The peace and confidence that are there for us; to sustain, encourage and protect us in the midst of fear.  We can get them by embracing Him.  Sadly, that old saying that you can lead a
horse to water but you can’t make it drink can be all too true of us.  Just because God has provision for us, doesn’t mean we will take advantage of it.

It’s probably safe to say that none of us have men and armies pursuing us to kill us.  But take a look around us and we see all manner of frightening things: economic uncertainty, job losses, threats of terrorism, immorality running rampant, marriages and families falling apart, Christians being persecuted throughout the world and here in the United States as well – the list just goes on.

Those with younger children, have the concern of raising them to be true Christ-followers.  We read of young Christian men and women losing their faith when they go off to college.  We can succumb to the fear of thinking that ‘greater is the one in the world, than the one within them – or us’.  Rather than recognizing that as a lie of the enemy of our souls.

Is our focus going to be upon things that frighten and intimidate?  Or is our focus and ‘life-embrace’ going to be upon our Lord Jesus?  We cannot be casual in this or approach it
half-heartedly.  The enemy of our souls is using these things to pursue us, just as Saul’s men pursued David.  Our response must be to have our lives turn whole-heartedly to our Lord.  He is our light and salvation.  He is our strength.

We must learn to love Him with all our heart and soul and mind and strength.  We must learn what exactly that means, and do it – embracing a lifestyle that truly reflects us being men and women after God’s own heart.

Proverbs 31:10-12       A wife of noble character who can find?  She is worth far more than rubies.  ¹¹ Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.  ¹² She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.

I am the richest man in the world!  I have the Lord and He gave me Donna.  My August 25 and 26 devotionals describe the extraordinary way that the Lord brought us together.  Never in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine that I would be loved the way she loves me.  I never imagined how wonderful marriage could be.  It’s so incredible to be able to spend your life with the one person you would rather be with than anyone else.

When Donna smiles at me and I see the twinkle in her eyes, the thrill that goes through me is beyond words.  Even more amazing is the fact that our love not only hasn’t grown old – it’s gotten better with time.  We ‘get to’ spend every day of our lives loving one another, and we both understand that is a choice the Lord expects (and requires) us to make!  Right choices lead to blessing and wonder.  Wrong choices lead to pain, separation and becoming a statistic.

We both recognize that what the Lord has given us is priceless and our commitment to Him requires us both to guard and protect our marriage.  We do not have the option of indulging sinful behavior that undealt with, could damage what we have.  We know that one day we will give an account of how we have loved our spouse.

The grace of God, the enabling power of His Spirit and our commitment to His Word and to each other have enabled us to navigate the difficult times.  These were (and are) times when our actions and attitudes haven’t been what they should be.  The Lord has enabled us to recognize our sin and repent and ask forgiveness of one another.  We cannot overemphasize the importance of ‘I’m sorry’, ‘Please forgive me’, ‘I was wrong’, ‘I forgive
you’.

We are so grateful for the fact that we recognize that forgiveness is not optional.  It is an absolute requirement of our faith and so vital to our existence.  Best of all is the fact that we are committed to loving our God most of all.  Loving each other is part and parcel of
loving Him.  In fact, loving our spouse is a primary way we show our love for God.  The more we love Him, the more we love each other – the more our lives express love for each other.  He is the center of it all.

I thank God that 45 years ago today, Donna and I were married.  Our love and appreciation for each other is the best it’s ever been – with the best still to come!

Acts 13:22  After removing Saul, he made David their king. He testified concerning him: ‘I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him  o do.’

Think of God being able to describe someone as “a man after my own heart, he will do everything I want him to do.”  This was the opposite of Saul.  The people had wanted a king like the other nations, so God gave them Saul, who looked like a king – outwardly.  Scripture describes Saul as being impressive and a head taller than the others.  He
would have really stood out in a crowd.  Unfortunately his heart was not where it needed to be and because of the choices he made, God rejected him.

When the Lord had Samuel go to Bethlehem to anoint one of Jesse’s sons as king, even Samuel was impressed with outward appearances.  When he saw Eliab, Jesse’s oldest son, he thought that surely this was the Lord’s anointed.  But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does
not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)

Each one of the seven sons of Jesse with him in Bethlehem passed in front of Samuel but the Lord chose none of them.  Finally Samuel asks, “Are these all the sons you have?”  No, there was one more, the youngest, but he was out tending the sheep.  So they sent for him and didn’t sit down until he arrived.  He was the one the Lord chose.

I find this event to be both motivating and encouraging.  It’s motivating, in that I want to more and more have a heart after the Lord like David had – that I would do whatever the Lord wants me to do.  It’s encouraging because even though David wasn’t there, things weren’t going forward until they got him.

Think of the times in our lives when opportunity called – literally.  We receive a phone call or letter regarding a job, a ministry or some kind of opportunity because the Lord brought us to mind.  He knows who we are and where we are.  Let us sharpen our focus on becoming men and women after His own heart.

Proverbs 22:6  Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

Yesterday I used the illustration of training our children when they were little in the principle of obedience and disobedience.  The focus of any discipline was upon disobedience not upon the specific action they did or didn’t do.

This brought to mind a very significant experience that we had in Grad School that underscored the effectiveness of this approach.  I was taking a class on Moral
Development.  The (secular) textbooks we were using described that children had to be 7 or 8 years old before they were developed enough to understand certain things.  They contained the following illustration:

Billy is asked to help set the table for dinner.  While carrying a tray of 5 glasses to the
table, he trips and breaks all 5 glasses.

Nancy is told that she cannot have a cookie before dinner.  But when her mother is in another room, she gets a chair to stand on to reach the cookie jar.  While reaching for the cookies she bumps 1 glass, knocking it to the floor, breaking it.

Who is naughtier – Billy or Nancy?

The authors indicated that children younger than 7 or 8 would say Billy was naughtier because he broke 5 glasses while Nancy only broke 1.  Their focus would be upon the number of glasses broken.  The one who broke more was naughtier.

We had 2 sons at the time and they were 3 and 4 years old.  The next day I read the illustration to Johnnie, the oldest, and asked him, “Who is naughtier – Billy or Nancy?”  His answer was wonderful.  Johnnie, the 4 year old, replied, “Only Nancy was naughty.  She disobeyed.  Billy wasn’t naughty because it was an accident.”

Needless to say I shared this experience with the class the next week.

Proverbs 27:5-6a  Better is open rebuke than hidden love.  ⁶ Wounds from a friend can be trusted,

One of my classes at Wheaton Grad School dealt with resolving conflicts.  We each had to take a test that measured our view of confrontation.  Among the students in the class were pastors, missionaries, teachers and workers in Christian organizations.  We were all a bit surprised when we discovered that we all wanted to avoid confrontation like the plague!

‘Confrontation’ is one of those words like ‘commands’, ‘obey’, ‘obedience’, ‘submission’ that we seem to have an allergic reaction to instead of seeing it as vital to healthy Christian
living.  We tend to think of explosive, angry, unpleasant interactions that make the problems worse.

Rather, it’s important to recognize that facing up to problems, issues or people is essential – and to do so in love is a requirement of scripture.  It is a multifaceted redemptive skill that we must learn.  Key to confronting situations is learning how to do it, when to do it and if in fact it needs to be done.

Years ago my dad belonged to a men’s Bible study.  One day he commented that he was going to quit attending it – that most of the men had already quit coming.  I asked him why.  He said, “Wally just won’t quit talking and dominates everything.”  I suggested that
he talk to Wally and tell him about this problem he has – that his non-stop talking is driving the men away.  Dad said, “I couldn’t do that.  None of us want to hurt Wally’s feelings.”  The men thought it better for the Bible study to die than to confront a brother with a blind spot who probably didn’t realize what he was doing.

If we are doing something wrong or something that is causing a problem, wouldn’t we want to know about it?  Wouldn’t we want a co-worker, a friend, or a loved one to take us aside and in kindness inform us of it?  If we were Wally, wouldn’t we want to know before we were sitting all by ourselves?

The Golden Rule is such a simple yet profound learning tool – “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  When it comes to speaking to someone about a problem (think family, kids, spouse, parents, friends), we are to do it in a way that we would like it done to us if the roles were reversed.