Love

I am sure there is a way to make this font turn red, but I don't want to take time to figure it out. Besides, it probably wouldn't look good on this background. The reason that I would want it to be red would be that people typically associate love with the color red. Last week was Valentine's Day, so there were verses on our sign about love, people on the street corner selling red and pink gifts for those who have personal convictions against Wal-Mart, and others who went to Wal-Mart to pour over cards and giant teddy bears and spend thousands of dollars.

We love lots of things. We love chocolate (2.8 billion lbs. consumed in America each year!). We love baseball (the first MLB spring training game starts tonight). We love our pets. We love our friends and family. And we love God. There so many other things that are loved, pleasures, past-times and people top the list in whatever flavors suit you. We know that we are supposed to love God most, but this kind of love, unlike chocolate, pets, and people, is harder to actualize, harder to describe, harder to make concrete or tangible. It is, however, deadly serious. "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed." -1 Cor 16:22

Whether pleasures, past-times, pets, people, or God, a common denominator is desire to have or experience or be near. It is also true that our love for God should be the highest among our loves. If we apply measuring tape of desire to God alone, we examine our desire to experience and be near him to gauge our love for him. Do you miss him if your life squeezes him out for a day or a couple of days or a week? Do you think about him regularly? Do you look forward to his presence being manifested experientially? Is there a thirst for him in you like that of the deer who is searching diligently for water in a land of drought?

Psalm 63:1-4 give us a picture, and also a clue as to what the basis is for the psalmist's love/desire. He knew God. He knew that God's love was better than life. This was not only an intellectual value judgment (if it were, it would also be accurate), but a personal, experiential knowing of the God of glory. He knew about him, what he had done in the past and his character and attributes. He also knew the comforting touch, the satisfying presence, and blazing glory that transformers a man into humble, hungry, bold, lover of the Lover of His soul.

If we lack true love for God, it may be because we lack the knowledge that Paul spoke of in Philippians 3:8-10, where he counted all things in this world a loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ in the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, and being conformed unto his death. He knew the worth, therefore had the affections.

Practically: seek to know him in the word and in prayer. No, really seek him. Seek him alone in worship, and with the body in worship. It is truly a surpassing worth. We are to continually raise our affection for Christ and seek to raise the affections of others around us for his beauty. Look to see with spiritual eyes and discernment; ask God to reveal himself, so that you may want him. Confess your lack of love, and ask God to change your heart, wooing you to his awe and worthiness.