“I love them that love Me; and those that seek me early shall find Me.” {Proverbs 8:17}
Pretty interesting isn’t it? I thought God loved everybody, what does this verse mean, He will love them that love Him? Does this mean if you don’t love Him He won’t love you back?
Well, if you’ve read the Bible long enough and often enough, you can’t help but admit that God just doesn’t love everybody. Oh, sure He loves the whole of humanity, His whole creation. The scripture states that while we were yet sinners God died for us. Indeed, great is His love for us.
“But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” {Romans 5:8}
Yet on the other hand, God hates the wicked, or those who sin with intention, and He hates the proud. If you’re the type who doesn’t really care for His word and does not fear Him, well the scriptures do not bode well for you. The Bible states those that love Him He preserves, and those that do wrong and have no fear for His word He will destroy.
“The LORD preserveth all them that love Him: but all the wicked will He destroy.” {Psalm 145:20}
“Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.” {Proverbs 16:5}
See, the first thing about loving God is to fear Him or to truly believe that what He says in His word is true. With that fear you reverence Him, you make Him great in your life.
“Sanctify the LORD of hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread.” {Isaiah 8:13}
People these days don’t like the idea of “fearing” God. They mistake this fear for something negative like God is around every corner ready to pounce on you any time you make a mistake. We certainly don’t want to fear God that way. We want to always be confident in His love for us. Yet on the other hand, we can start abusing this idea of God loving us too much. We can start believing as some do that even when we’re sinning it is okay because God loves us anyway. Hence, many have stopped fearing God’s word. In truth they don’t really care for Him anymore. They say they do but yet they go ahead and go against what God says anyway, and do not fear Him anymore.
Having this healthy fear of God is very important. It really is a show of true love for the Lord. The Bible states,
“If ye love Me, keep my commandments.” {John 14:15}
“Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD; that walketh in His ways.” {Psalm 128:1}
“Praise ye the LORD. Blessed is the man that feareth the LORD, that delighteth greatly in His commandments.” {Psalm 112:1}
“For all those things hath Mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word.” {Isaiah 66:2}
So first thing first, if you want God’s favor in your life, you need a healthy dose of God’s fear. You will believe His word above all. You will fear Him and reverence Him to the highest degree, knowing that His word goes first before yours.
The second thing is you have to obey Him. It’s one thing to know how true His word is and how awesome and dreadfully scary God is, because the Bible states He is a consuming fire and one to be feared above all. {Hebrews 12:29} It’s another when you want to only obey Him when it’s convenient. We fear Him, and yet we do not really obey Him. His Spirit prompts us to do something, and we know what we should do, but when it came down to it we did what we wanted to do.
Like I have already implied, fear and obedience should come hand in hand, but in every day practice this simply is not happening for a lot of us. Many times we are still hard headed. We know what He says, we believe Him and we fear Him. Yet, like the first king of Israel, we want to keep the healthy flock when God already commanded to destroy everything. We fear men more than God. We fear Him and yet we don’t. We are like King Saul, we think we’re going to appease God with our sacrifices of going to church, paying our tithes and offerings and doing good to people. Yet when He tells us in our spirit to stop watching ungodly shows or not to insult a friend with a joke, we continue to do so anyway. We think we can get away with our sacrifices, but God is actually looking for obedience to the Holy Spirit, a humbleness of spirit within us. He told King Saul through the Prophet Samuel that He cares more for obedience than sacrifices.
“And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” {1 Samuel 15:22}
God is looking for those that will worship Him in spirit and in truth. {John 4:23-24} That means it is so key that we incline our hearts to listen to His voice, the Holy Spirit, when He deals with us to do something. We shouldn’t just fear the preacher and the preaching we hear, but we should very much pay attention to what the Holy Ghost is telling us in our spirit. The majority of people may be doing something that’s lawful and acceptable, and the crowd may be walking towards the left and having a great time in the process. But if the Holy Ghost tells you to walk to the right and get away from the crowd, incline to follow what the Holy Spirit is telling you and obey. If you really want God’s favor, this is how to go about it. You follow His voice even if you end up all alone.
“Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” {Hebrews 13:5}
When we learn to obey the voice of the Lord and fear Him above all fears, His favor will overshadow us. He will love us like no one else in the world can. Our prayers even before we are finished mentioning them to Him will be acknowledged and will be performed for us. He will lift us up above all fears and above all places that no one can come against us. Even Satan will know who we are and the demonic spirits of this world will be afraid of us. They will know we belong to the Lord and we are one powerful being.
“And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?” {Acts 9:15}
It’s simply because we’ve learned to fear God above all fears and to be obedient to His voice. When it all comes down to it, we must love God more than ourselves. This doesn’t mean we are perfect or we do not fail. But we know when we do fail our perfection is in confessing our sins to Jesus Christ and acknowledging that He is righteous and that He is holy. We humble ourselves before Him and find His forgiveness. His love is true and because we are His servant and desire to obey Him and fear Him, He delights in us and loves us. We do not take His word lightly, we fear Him. We love His voice and we know His voice because He has revealed Himself to us. Those He loves He delivers and comforts, because they fear and obey His voice. They are set in His eyes for an everlasting blessing and favor. They are lifted up forever.
“Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him My salvation.” {Psalm 91:14-16}
Prayer
Jesus, I love You, You mean so much to me. My desire is to follow You Lord, I desire You so much in my life. Please forgive me for anything I have said, done, thought of, or desired in my heart that is not pleasing before You. Please Lord, forgive me and cleanse me from all of my unrighteousness. You are my hope and my help. I am lost without You.
Please Lord help me to love You more and obey You. I cannot do this on my own. If it is left up to me I’ll only do what I want to do, but I love You and desire to follow You, so please Savior help me. Help me to follow You and obey You and love You until the end, I pray, in Your most holy and lovely name Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
Image by Ilona Ilyés from Pixabay
Rp8/2017
