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re: Power of Prayer >No Matter Which Faith YouFollow=GOD is With You
“Jesus, How Deep Is Your Love for Him?”
Philip Whitney
A Song About Love
While listening to some “oldies but goodies” last night one song stuck me. Do the lyrics below sound like a good question for Jesus to ask us? They are from a well-known love song released in 1977 by the Bee Gees. In this song, one is asking another, “How Deep Is Your Love?” The one asking doesn’t say, “I need to know,” but, “I need to learn.” There is obviously a loving relationship, but one of the two needs to learn how deep is the love of the other. This person needs to see the other ACT in love, not just hear words. For us, it’s Jesus.
“How deep is your love, how deep is your love
How deep is your love?
I really need to learn
‘Cause we’re living in a world of fools
Breaking us down when they all should let us be
We belong to you and me” From a faith perspective, I see Jesus asking us “how deep is our love,” stating it’s important because we live in a messed-up world. Although a coincidence, it is appropriate the question is asked three times as Jesus asked Peter after His resurrection. Let’s look at our love of Jesus and what Jesus desires.
Loving Jesus, A Measure of Spiritual Maturity
Let me submit to you that to fully love Jesus as He desires is a measure of the maturity of one’s faith. For me, it took time as my faith grew and I drew closer to Christ. When just a “babe” in the faith, being honest with myself, my love of Jesus was not what He calls for. In Matthew 10:37 Jesus said, “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” Whoa! To me, this is one of the toughest of Jesus’ teachings. Do you love Jesus more than your parents and children? If not, that’s OK, but you need to strive to put your faith higher on your list of priorities.
In the beginning, I could not answer “yes” to that question but today, my love of Jesus is far above any love I share with anything in my life. For me it took time, and when you get there it is a wonderful thing. What helped me was thinking about and viewing clips of the crucifixion from various movies. Doing so reminds me of the incredible love of God, through His Son’s death for you and me. He bought us with His blood and putting our love of Him above all else should be easy.
Read the Word to Love Jesus More
Reading His Word. Early in the Bible in Genesis 20:4-5, we learn, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.” We all understand jealousy. When the person we love gives too much attention to another, we feel that jealousy and get angry. When God sees us putting others or other things before Him, He too becomes jealous and in the extreme of hatred, He becomes angry and disciplines.
We Must Love Jesus More
In Matthew Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day (judgment), ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and, in your name, perform many miracles?’ Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and, in your name, perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” Can you imagine how devastating it would be to hear our Lord say, “away from me?”
Know Jesus, Not Just Know About Him
We must KNOW Jesus, not just know about Him. The people depicted in this scripture are people who attend church, volunteer their time, give to the church and do wonderful things. But works will never get us to heaven. We must have a loving relationship with Jesus Christ. A daily devotional is good, but surely, we can honor our God beyond that. Being in the Word is heads down reading the Bible and letting it speak to you.
Worship to love Jesus More
Worship and Adore Him. Do you attend church to give or receive? Often hear people say, including myself in the past, “worship at church is the spiritual feeding I badly need.” Now getting fed is good and occurs in the church, but it should not be the primary focus when attending a church service. Attending a service is not to receive, but to give. Go to worship and give praise to God for who He is and what He has done. When singing a hymn, we internalize the words and direct our voice heavenward, turning the lyrics into praise to God. If your pastor, in His message, says something that really moves you, it is good that it moves you, but it is more important to thank God for the words you just heard. Make worship, worship.
Pray to Love Jesus More
Pray Without Ceasing. How can we have a relationship with God and express our love to him if we do not pray? It’s simple, no communication = no relationship. Keep a list in your Bible. If you haven’t heard about the status of a person or situation, let that serve to prompt you to find out. Take advantage of as many situations you can to pray. My favorite is while in the car, where we spend so much time.
It has been said, “Everyone needs one hour of prayer every day, except on the busy days – then we need two hours.” That makes a lot of sense. When experiencing a trial, do we pray more or less? More, of course. If we face a busy day, spend a little extra time with God. To me, we all should pray for an absolute minimum of twice per day. The minute you wake up and at night when we go to bed. Those are times when you can take a few minutes to clear your mind, relax and focus on one thing – God and how much you love Him. We have many opportunities in a day to pray and we should lovingly devote that time to God. Loving Jesus Should Be Our Life.
We All Fall Short – So Always Strive Toward the Goal.
I wonder if many of you feel a touch badly right now as I do. We all have times when we fall short. But, we are only talking about two things that are very easy to do, read and pray, and a change in your approach to worship. This is not being on a diet to lose fifty pounds. It is simply committing our time, and not a vast amount of it, to let God speak to us through His Word and we speak to Him through prayer and then praise Him while in His house. These are fundamentals of following Jesus and need to become a necessity to us, just like food, water, and shelter are.
In the love of Jesus Christ,
Philip
P.S. (Prayer Suggestion) If you haven’t already, embrace Jesus today. Pray to Him, with a burdened heart, confessing you are a sinner and asking Him to forgive you of those sins. Tell Him, with His help, you will turn away from those sins and seek to be more like Him. Lastly, ask Jesus to come into your heart and give Him control of your life. Amen (if you prayed from your heart, you are now a child of God and your destiny is Heaven)
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I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people -- for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:1-4
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