Good Monday Morning (12-6-10),

We say we love things all the time. I love that television show. I love that worship group. I love to hear rain on a tin roof.

It’s so easy just to say, “Oh yes, I love God.” I say it all the time. I just blithely flip it out of my mouth, feeling so smug and secure in my knowledge that God is very happy to hear me say it. Matter of fact, every time I say it I figure I’m just making God’s day. (Understand that in this I am like Paul, speaking foolishly to make a point!)

One of my favorite scriptures is found in 1 Corinthians 2:9. I quote it often, in all kinds of circumstances, confessing and professing it over my life: “Eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Oh yes, I love God. So I confidently quote that scripture expecting to see the manifestation of it throughout my life.

But the other day I was reading in the Amplified version and saw an extrapolation of what that statement means: ‘those who love Him’. I’m beginning to understand that the love discussed here is slightly different than my love for jamoca almond fudge ice cream.

The love stated in this scripture of great promise is a love that incorporates three qualities.

First, “those who love Him” are those who hold Him in affectionate reverence. I looked up the word ‘reverence’. It means to honor and respect, to demonstrate profound adoring awed respect. No wonder Pastor Carl has been teaching on the subject of honor!

We cannot love God without honoring Him. Our love for Him must be something pulled from the very depths of our being; something that causes us to fall on our face in His presence; a quality that stops us in our tracks, a drawing so powerful that our hearts follow Him like the faces of sunflowers follow the sun’s path across the sky.

Profound adoring awed respect. This emotion has nothing in common with my favorite things. This love I’m to have for my Creator Savior Redeemer God must be so powerful that every other fond emotion I have previously called love must so pale in comparison that it resembles hatred.

Secondly, “those who love God” will promptly obey Him. Jesus said it best when He said, simply, “If you love Me, you will obey Me.” Those of us who say we love God and then demonstrate absolute disrespect and dishonor of His Word because we want to do our own thing instead of what He says cannot know the type of love described in this passage.

To love God with the kind of love that draws from Him things the eye has not seen and the ear has not heard is the kind of love that commands obedience. If I love Him with profound adoring awed respect then when He tells me to do something I never hesitate. My attitude coming from this sort of love is, “Whatever You say, Lord…Send me…I’ll do it.” My reverence will cause me to embrace His command as my fondest wish — my greatest desire will be to yield my will to His through prompt and willing obedience.

Finally, “those who love God” will gratefully recognize the benefits He has bestowed. We will be grateful. We will be thankful. We will look at what we have, not what we have not. We will recognize that all good things come from Heaven and we will be aware of how many good things have been gifted to us by our loving Father.

The kind of love that manifests things that have never entered into the heart of man, those things that have been prepared for us, that kind of love is a love that overflows with thanksgiving even in trials, in the midst of temptations, despite set backs. It is the kind of love that never fails to recognize the magnificent gift of salvation and redemption, understanding that if we never have anything but that we are among the most blessed people in all of history.

People who love God are people who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed. It is not a light thing. It is not an easy thing.

Such a love consumes us. It is a fire burning in the heart that can never be quenched. It is a love that never doubts, never condemns, never wavers, never flinches. It is a quality that transforms us into vessels able to carry the very presence of God into dark places. It is an attribute of character that causes us to shine like stars in a dreary and hopeless world; to lay down our lives in the service of others; to stand with courage in the face of fierce opposition.

For those who so love God, there are things prepared that are bigger than our imaginations — that have never been seen or experienced or heard or discussed.

Lord Jesus, teach me that kind of love!

“For from of old no one has heard nor perceived by the ear; nor has the eye seen a God besides You. Who works and shows Himself active on behalf of him who earnestly waits for Him.” Isaiah 64:4

Laurie Gross