"I love the LORD, because He has heard My voice and my supplications. Because He has inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live." [Psalm
116:1-2; NKJV]
Sometimes we talk of love as needing to be unconditional, of loving not conditioned on anything in the other, but just because we choose to love. It is totally voluntary, an act of grace, a free gift with no strings attached. Certainly God loves us in that way, he loved us while we were his enemies, while we were unattractive and otherwise unlovable (cf. Romans 5:6-10). But God makes it a lot easier for us to love him. He doesn't ask us to love him simply out of our own virtuousness. The psalmist reminds us that God makes it very easy to love him. "We love Him because He first loved us" (1 John 4:19). In this case it is because God hears us and answers our prayers, that we are so full of gratitude and thankfulness, that we don't feel like anything except loving him. And how many other blessings could we count to remind us of God's goodness towards us, especially in Christ Jesus? May we meditate on his love towards us often, so that a love for him would well up inside of us. And may it drive us to pray and keep praying, calling upon the LORD as long as we live.
G'day Craig. I don't know how I missed this. I preach one of my favorite sermons from this passage and ask the congregation 4 questions.
ReplyDelete1.) How do you feel when you are not listened to?
2.) How do you feel when you are listened to?
3.) How do you feel about those who do listen to you?
4.) How do you feel about those who don't listen to you.
I go into the fact that David knows the Lord listens to him and because of it, he will love him...
I speak about how Christianity is about a relationship with the living God and not just a way to live...etc
The first time I shared this with a boys youth group at the end they asked me to tell them more about God instead of wanting to go and play games as was the norm.
The other big surprise is the answer the biggest rat-bag gave. He said he feels loved and hated by those who listen and don't listen to him and in return loves and hates those who do listen and don't
Blessings craig b