How to Love God More
I’ll never forget that night, after all the church members had gone home, when I was alone with the Lord in the glow of the baptistry’s florescent lights. The worship that night had been rich, and before the session was over I found myself up at the front on my knees, face to the rough blue carpet, weeping before the Lord in the most undignified manner. Frequent flashes of how foolish I probably looked pop in and out of my thoughts, but the self inflicted insults were ignored. Who cares at this point? I am stuck.
“Lord, I practically live at the church,” I said in between sobs. “I live here. I work LONG hours. I’m praying, singing, preaching my heart out. I clean when no one is looking. I try to love people. Lord, I know I am accepted, but I want to actively love you more. Despite all my years in church, I have no idea what to do? What more can I do?”
I lowered myself a bit more, practically curled up on the floor, using my hands over my eyes to hide from the world. There were no more words to say, so I said none. I just sat there at a loss, in His presence.
Suddenly, a face from my second mission trip was staring at me, so vivid in my imagination that I opened my eyes to see if they were somehow really there. There was no one. I closed my eyes, and again there was a face, a different one from a village just north of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia. Then in my mind’s eye it changed to a friend I had met from North Thailand, then again to a middle aged man that I had prayed for during my first mission trip to Peru, then to the face of this homeless man from our town in Mississippi that hung around the church all the time and kept me from getting my work done.
Then came that silent, yet booming voice, that skips the ears and speaks directly to the heart.
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ – Matthew 25:31-40
It hit me, as clear as the morning. If I want to love God more, to truly DO something to show Him my thankfulness for all He has done for me, I must walk outside of these walls. If I want to increase my display of love there is but ONE option. Love Others. Feed those who are hungry. Give water to the thirsty. Clothe the naked. Welcome the stranger. Visit and care for the sick. The Lord Jesus Christ said in these above verses that when we do these things He takes it personally. He is saying that when you visit that sick friend, give money to build wells in foreign nations, feed the starving in Somalia, rescue orphans from trafficking, or preach the Gospel to those cut off from it, He takes it as if you have done those things to Him personally.
Would you ever walk by Jesus Christ and not give Him your coat if He were freezing on the streets? Would you let Jesus starve and do nothing to try to help? Would you let Christ drink contaminated water? Neither would I. When you give to the work of the Gospel you are loving Jesus more by loving those He suffered and died to rescue. We love God more by loving man more.
There is a story of two young Danish missionary men who sold themselves into slavery so that they could reach their fellow slaves with the Gospel. As the ship sailed out of the harbor, their families begged for them to re-consider, but instead they yelled back out across the harbor “Shall not the lamb who was slain receive the full reward of his suffering?” When we give our lives for the cause of Christ, no matter what that means, we honor and Love God more than we ever could singing a lifetime of hymns. Those hymns gain value when they are sung from a heart, truly ‘sold out’ to the cause of Christ.
I stood to my feet and looked at the cross that we always kept on the stage. He gave all and was asking for my all. Would I give it? A few months later Darlene and I left for an extended mission journey and now, over three years later and after 20 months on the field, Darlene and I are still striving to answer that question. We desire to give our all; to Love God by loving those he loves, to give the billions of bound up blind prisoners the living water they need to live life eternal.
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Jeniferkraus
