Experiencing God
Day 3: Love God
Day 3: Love God
If I love Him, I will obey Him!
God takes the initiative to pursue a love relationship with you. This love relationship is not a one-sided affair. He wants you to know Him, worship Him, and love Him.
Read John 14:21 and answer these questions.
a. Who is the one who loves Jesus? What does he have and do?
________________________________________________________________________
b. How does the Father respond to the one who loves Jesus? ________________________________________________________________________
c. What two things will Jesus do for the one who loves Him? ________________________________________________________________________
John 14:21
“Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15). When you obey Jesus, you demonstrate that you love Him and trust Him. The Father loves those who love His Son. For those who love Him, Jesus said He would love them and show Himself to them. Obedience is the outward expression of your love for God. The reward for your obedience and love is that Jesus will show Himself to you. Jesus set an example for you in His life. He said, “The world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me” (John 14:31). Jesus obeyed every command of the Father. He demonstrated His love for the Father by obedience.
How can you demonstrate your love for God? _________________________________
A love relationship with God requires that you demonstrate your love by obedience. If you love Him, you will obey Him. This is not just following the letter of the law but following the spirit of the command as well. If you have an obedience problem, you have a love problem. Focus your attention on God’s love.
God’s Nature
God’s nature is love. He can never function contrary to His nature. Never in your life will God express His will toward you except as an expression of His perfect love. He can’t! He can never give you second best. His nature will not let Him. He will bring discipline, judgment, and wrath on those who continue in sin and rebellion. His disciplines, however, are always based on love (see Heb. 12:6 ). Because God’s nature is love, the way He expresses Himself to you is always best. Two verses describe His love toward us: “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” (John 3:16) and “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16).
“God is love” (1 John 4:16). Your total trust in God’s love is crucial. This has been a powerful influence in my life. I never look at circumstances without seeing them against the backdrop of the cross. My relationship with God determines everything I do.
Hebrews 12:6
“The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”
Fill in the two blanks.
God is ______________________. His will is always ___________________.
Your relationship with God right now reveals what you believe about Him. It is spiritually impossible for you to truly believe one way and practice another. If you really believe God is love, you will also accept the fact that His will is always best. By nature God is omniscient—all-knowing. He has all knowledge—past, present, and future. Nothing is outside His knowledge. Whenever God expresses Himself to you, therefore, His directions are always trustworthy.
Have you ever asked God to give you several alternatives so you could choose the best one for you? How many options does God have to give you for you to have the right one? One! God always gets it right the first time!
Fill in the two blanks.
God is all-__________________. His directions are always _______________.
Whenever God gives you a directive, it is always right. God’s will is always best. You never have to question whether His will is best or right. It always is. This is true because He loves you and knows the future. Because He loves you perfectly, you can completely trust Him and obey Him.
God is omnipotent—all-powerful. He created the world from nothing. He will accomplish anything He purposes to do. If He asks you to do something, He Himself will enable you to do it. We will look at this fact more closely in day 5.
Fill in the two blanks.
God is all-__________________. He can ______________ me to do His will.
Match the fact about God’s nature on the left with the correct application statement on the right. Record the correct letters in the blanks.
___ 1. God is love.
a. God’s directions are right.
___ 2. God is all-knowing.
b. God can enable me to do His will.
___ 3. God is all-powerful.
c. God’s will is best.
When your life is in the middle of God’s activity, He will rearrange your thinking. God’s ways and thoughts are so different from yours and mine they will often sound wrong or impossible. You need a readiness to believe God and trust Him completely. You must believe that what He is doing is best for you. Don’t try to second-guess Him. Let Him be God. The answers are 1–c, 2–a, 3–b.
God will start to make Himself known to you simply as He would to a child. As you respond to Him in childlike trust, a whole new way of looking at life will begin to unfold for you. Your life will be fulfilling. You will never sense an emptiness or a lack of purpose in your life. God always fills your life with Himself. When you have Him, you have God at your side.
God’s Commands
When you hear words like commands, judgments, statutes, and laws, is your first impression negative or positive? ❏ Negative ❏ Positive
God’s commands are expressions of His love nature. In Deuteronomy 10:12-13 God declares that His commands are for our good: “What does the L ORD your God ask of you but to fear the L ORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the L ORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the L ORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?”
Read Deuteronomy 32:46-47. How important are God’s words to you? ___________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
Deuteronomy 32:46-47
“He said to them, ‘Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.’ ”
The foundation of these passages is the love relationship. When you come to know God by experience, you will be convinced of His love. When you are assured of His love, you can believe Him and trust Him. When you trust Him, you will obey Him. Scripture indicates, “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).
God loves you deeply and profoundly. Because He loves you, He has given you guidelines for living so you will not miss the full dimensions of the love relationship. Life also has some land mines that can destroy you or harm your life. God does not want to see you miss His best, and He does not want your life destroyed by foolish choices.
Suppose you had to cross a field full of land mines, and a person who knew exactly where each one was buried offered to take you through it. Would you say to him, “I don’t want you to tell me what to do. I have free will! I don’t want you to impose your ways on me”?
I don’t know about you, but I would stay as close to that person as I could. I certainly would not wander off. His directions to me would preserve my life. He would say, “Don’t go that way, because that way will kill you. Go this way, and you will live.”
That is the purpose of God’s commands. He wants you to receive life and have it abundantly. When the Lord gives you a command, He is trying to protect and preserve the best He has for you. He does not want you to lose it. When God gives a command, He is not restricting you. He is freeing you.
Read Deuteronomy 6:20-25, which follows. Then highlight or describe the purpose of God’s commandments, decrees, stipulations, and laws.
“In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the L ORD our God has commanded you?’ tell him: … ‘The L ORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the L ORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the L ORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness’ ” (Deut. 6:20-25). ________________________________________________________________________
God has given His commands so you can prosper and live life to its fullest measure. Let me give you an example. Suppose the Lord says, “Let me tell you where a beautiful, wonderful expression of love is. I will provide you with a spouse. Your relationship with this person will bring out the best in you. It will give you an opportunity to experience some of the deepest and most meaningful expressions of human love. That individual will release some wonderful things in you, affirm some things in you, and strengthen you when you lose heart. That person will love you, believe in you, and trust you. From that relationship I will give you children who will sit on your knee and say, ‘Daddy, I love you.’ ”
But God also says, “Do not commit adultery” (Matt. 5:27). Is that command to limit or restrict you? No! It is to protect and free you to experience love at its human best. What happens if you break the command and commit adultery? The love relationship is ruptured between husband and wife. Trust is gone. Hurt sets in. Guilt and bitterness creep in. Even the children begin to respond differently. Scars severely limit the future dimensions of love you could have experienced together.
God’s commands are designed to guide you to life’s best. You will not obey Him, however, if you do not believe Him and trust Him. You will not believe Him if you do not love Him. You cannot love Him unless you know Him. But if you really come to know God as He reveals Himself to you, you will love Him. If you love Him, you will believe and trust Him. If you believe and trust Him, you will obey Him.
God is love. Because of His love, His will for you is always best. He is all-knowing, so His directions are always right. He has given His commands so you can prosper and live life to its fullest measure. If you love Him, you will obey Him!
SUMMARY STATEMENTS
Obedience is the outward expression of my love for God.
If I have an obedience problem, I have a love problem.
God is love. His will is always best.
God is all-knowing. His directions are always right.
God is all-powerful. He can enable me to do His will.
When God gives a commandment, He is not restricting me. He is freeing me.
Review today’s lesson. Pray and ask God to identify one or more statements or Scriptures He wants you to understand, learn, or practice. Highlight them. Then respond to the following.
What was the most meaningful statement or Scripture you read today?
Reword the statement or Scripture into a prayer of response to God.
What does God want you to do in response to today’s study?
“I’m a Pastor Once Again”
I was attending a large convention meeting with my wife and my son Richard. Suddenly a man approached me and grabbed my hand. Fighting back his emotion, he explained that several years before, God had clearly called him to be a pastor. He had served in a church but had suffered deep hurts from vicious attacks by some of its members. He had resigned from the church, vowing never to serve in a church again. He obtained a good job in a new company and was soon a vice-president earning a large salary. For several years this man forsook his calling and immersed himself in his lucrative career.
Then the church he attended began studying Experiencing God . Through that course God reminded the bitter man that His love for him had never changed; neither had His call on his life. With tears streaming down his face, the man choked out, “I’m a pastor once again!” Bitter circumstances had taken this dear man’s eyes off the love of his Lord, but as he returned to that love relationship, God enabled him to overcome the difficulties he had faced in life.
If I love Him, I will obey Him!
God takes the initiative to pursue a love relationship with you. This love relationship is not a one-sided affair. He wants you to know Him, worship Him, and love Him.
Read John 14:21 and answer these questions.
a. Who is the one who loves Jesus? What does he have and do?
________________________________________________________________________
b. How does the Father respond to the one who loves Jesus? ________________________________________________________________________
c. What two things will Jesus do for the one who loves Him? ________________________________________________________________________
John 14:21
“Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15). When you obey Jesus, you demonstrate that you love Him and trust Him. The Father loves those who love His Son. For those who love Him, Jesus said He would love them and show Himself to them. Obedience is the outward expression of your love for God. The reward for your obedience and love is that Jesus will show Himself to you. Jesus set an example for you in His life. He said, “The world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me” (John 14:31). Jesus obeyed every command of the Father. He demonstrated His love for the Father by obedience.
How can you demonstrate your love for God? _________________________________
A love relationship with God requires that you demonstrate your love by obedience. If you love Him, you will obey Him. This is not just following the letter of the law but following the spirit of the command as well. If you have an obedience problem, you have a love problem. Focus your attention on God’s love.
God’s Nature
God’s nature is love. He can never function contrary to His nature. Never in your life will God express His will toward you except as an expression of His perfect love. He can’t! He can never give you second best. His nature will not let Him. He will bring discipline, judgment, and wrath on those who continue in sin and rebellion. His disciplines, however, are always based on love (see Heb. 12:6 ). Because God’s nature is love, the way He expresses Himself to you is always best. Two verses describe His love toward us: “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son” (John 3:16) and “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16).
“God is love” (1 John 4:16). Your total trust in God’s love is crucial. This has been a powerful influence in my life. I never look at circumstances without seeing them against the backdrop of the cross. My relationship with God determines everything I do.
Hebrews 12:6
“The Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”
Fill in the two blanks.
God is ______________________. His will is always ___________________.
Your relationship with God right now reveals what you believe about Him. It is spiritually impossible for you to truly believe one way and practice another. If you really believe God is love, you will also accept the fact that His will is always best. By nature God is omniscient—all-knowing. He has all knowledge—past, present, and future. Nothing is outside His knowledge. Whenever God expresses Himself to you, therefore, His directions are always trustworthy.
Have you ever asked God to give you several alternatives so you could choose the best one for you? How many options does God have to give you for you to have the right one? One! God always gets it right the first time!
Fill in the two blanks.
God is all-__________________. His directions are always _______________.
Whenever God gives you a directive, it is always right. God’s will is always best. You never have to question whether His will is best or right. It always is. This is true because He loves you and knows the future. Because He loves you perfectly, you can completely trust Him and obey Him.
God is omnipotent—all-powerful. He created the world from nothing. He will accomplish anything He purposes to do. If He asks you to do something, He Himself will enable you to do it. We will look at this fact more closely in day 5.
Fill in the two blanks.
God is all-__________________. He can ______________ me to do His will.
Match the fact about God’s nature on the left with the correct application statement on the right. Record the correct letters in the blanks.
___ 1. God is love.
a. God’s directions are right.
___ 2. God is all-knowing.
b. God can enable me to do His will.
___ 3. God is all-powerful.
c. God’s will is best.
When your life is in the middle of God’s activity, He will rearrange your thinking. God’s ways and thoughts are so different from yours and mine they will often sound wrong or impossible. You need a readiness to believe God and trust Him completely. You must believe that what He is doing is best for you. Don’t try to second-guess Him. Let Him be God. The answers are 1–c, 2–a, 3–b.
God will start to make Himself known to you simply as He would to a child. As you respond to Him in childlike trust, a whole new way of looking at life will begin to unfold for you. Your life will be fulfilling. You will never sense an emptiness or a lack of purpose in your life. God always fills your life with Himself. When you have Him, you have God at your side.
God’s Commands
When you hear words like commands, judgments, statutes, and laws, is your first impression negative or positive? ❏ Negative ❏ Positive
God’s commands are expressions of His love nature. In Deuteronomy 10:12-13 God declares that His commands are for our good: “What does the L ORD your God ask of you but to fear the L ORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the L ORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the L ORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?”
Read Deuteronomy 32:46-47. How important are God’s words to you? ___________________
_________________________________________________________________________________
Deuteronomy 32:46-47
“He said to them, ‘Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.’ ”
The foundation of these passages is the love relationship. When you come to know God by experience, you will be convinced of His love. When you are assured of His love, you can believe Him and trust Him. When you trust Him, you will obey Him. Scripture indicates, “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).
God loves you deeply and profoundly. Because He loves you, He has given you guidelines for living so you will not miss the full dimensions of the love relationship. Life also has some land mines that can destroy you or harm your life. God does not want to see you miss His best, and He does not want your life destroyed by foolish choices.
Suppose you had to cross a field full of land mines, and a person who knew exactly where each one was buried offered to take you through it. Would you say to him, “I don’t want you to tell me what to do. I have free will! I don’t want you to impose your ways on me”?
I don’t know about you, but I would stay as close to that person as I could. I certainly would not wander off. His directions to me would preserve my life. He would say, “Don’t go that way, because that way will kill you. Go this way, and you will live.”
That is the purpose of God’s commands. He wants you to receive life and have it abundantly. When the Lord gives you a command, He is trying to protect and preserve the best He has for you. He does not want you to lose it. When God gives a command, He is not restricting you. He is freeing you.
Read Deuteronomy 6:20-25, which follows. Then highlight or describe the purpose of God’s commandments, decrees, stipulations, and laws.
“In the future, when your son asks you, ‘What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the L ORD our God has commanded you?’ tell him: … ‘The L ORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the L ORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And if we are careful to obey all this law before the L ORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness’ ” (Deut. 6:20-25). ________________________________________________________________________
God has given His commands so you can prosper and live life to its fullest measure. Let me give you an example. Suppose the Lord says, “Let me tell you where a beautiful, wonderful expression of love is. I will provide you with a spouse. Your relationship with this person will bring out the best in you. It will give you an opportunity to experience some of the deepest and most meaningful expressions of human love. That individual will release some wonderful things in you, affirm some things in you, and strengthen you when you lose heart. That person will love you, believe in you, and trust you. From that relationship I will give you children who will sit on your knee and say, ‘Daddy, I love you.’ ”
But God also says, “Do not commit adultery” (Matt. 5:27). Is that command to limit or restrict you? No! It is to protect and free you to experience love at its human best. What happens if you break the command and commit adultery? The love relationship is ruptured between husband and wife. Trust is gone. Hurt sets in. Guilt and bitterness creep in. Even the children begin to respond differently. Scars severely limit the future dimensions of love you could have experienced together.
God’s commands are designed to guide you to life’s best. You will not obey Him, however, if you do not believe Him and trust Him. You will not believe Him if you do not love Him. You cannot love Him unless you know Him. But if you really come to know God as He reveals Himself to you, you will love Him. If you love Him, you will believe and trust Him. If you believe and trust Him, you will obey Him.
God is love. Because of His love, His will for you is always best. He is all-knowing, so His directions are always right. He has given His commands so you can prosper and live life to its fullest measure. If you love Him, you will obey Him!
SUMMARY STATEMENTS
Obedience is the outward expression of my love for God.
If I have an obedience problem, I have a love problem.
God is love. His will is always best.
God is all-knowing. His directions are always right.
God is all-powerful. He can enable me to do His will.
When God gives a commandment, He is not restricting me. He is freeing me.
Review today’s lesson. Pray and ask God to identify one or more statements or Scriptures He wants you to understand, learn, or practice. Highlight them. Then respond to the following.
What was the most meaningful statement or Scripture you read today?
Reword the statement or Scripture into a prayer of response to God.
What does God want you to do in response to today’s study?
“I’m a Pastor Once Again”
I was attending a large convention meeting with my wife and my son Richard. Suddenly a man approached me and grabbed my hand. Fighting back his emotion, he explained that several years before, God had clearly called him to be a pastor. He had served in a church but had suffered deep hurts from vicious attacks by some of its members. He had resigned from the church, vowing never to serve in a church again. He obtained a good job in a new company and was soon a vice-president earning a large salary. For several years this man forsook his calling and immersed himself in his lucrative career.
Then the church he attended began studying Experiencing God . Through that course God reminded the bitter man that His love for him had never changed; neither had His call on his life. With tears streaming down his face, the man choked out, “I’m a pastor once again!” Bitter circumstances had taken this dear man’s eyes off the love of his Lord, but as he returned to that love relationship, God enabled him to overcome the difficulties he had faced in life.