Loving GOD

The self-dog in me has been so strong these past few months…too many months. I went off into my fleshly rebellion with discontentment.  My spoiled attitude left me apart from my LORD Master’s wing of protection and drove me deep into my self-dog mode.

Who am I to think that what I want matters more than what GOD wants?  I profess to be a true Christian, loving my LORD Master Jesus, but have come to realize, I can’t love Him above my own desires.  I am selfish with my love as self-dogs always are.

Now, I am given a command to Love my LORD Master more than anything else. To love Him less is idol worship.  Yes, idol worship.  As Mark 12:30 states:

”And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’”

Even loving our families more than our LORD Master is putting them before Him and that is wrong. Luke 14:26 states this very when Jesus states:

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

I am to love Jesus to the point that nothing else matters but Him. Love so great that I care not for my own life and the love I have for others seems like hatred.  Wow, that is pretty powerful.

Am I ready to love my LORD Master so much that the love I have for my family and friends seems like I hate them?  Am I committed to the One I profess as LORD and Master of my life that much, to the point of dying for Him?

Now, the self-dog in me is rebelling against that command.  I want to be in charge and live as I please, but this is contrary to what the LORD Master has commanded me to do.

How can I even begin to have this kind of love for my GOD and my Savior?   I can’t.  I can’t in anyway shape or form, begin to love my LORD Master as He requires of me.  I have to come to terms with that.  I cannot do it in my own strength, power, intelligence, or anything else that comes from my human form.  I am not humanly capable of loving in this manner. I do not have the capacity for a love this great.

If I cannot, then what am I to do?  How am I going to be obedient to my LORD Master? The answer lies in one word: Surrender.  I must give up thinking I am capable of anything.  I am not. I can’t even take in breath on my own to survive, and the sooner I come to accept this for my life, the faster I will come to the point of complete surrender to the LORD Master.

In surrendering my life to my LORD Master Jesus, I relinquish all hold I think I have on my life.  I place myself in my Creator’s hands as clay in the Potter’s hand, to become anything He desires of me.  The clay does not tell the potter what to do or make, just as I cannot tell our LORD Master what to do or what I want to become.  In surrendering, I place my life totally in the hands of Jesus Christ and accept His Will for my life as I live it out here on earth.

Surrender to our LORD Master is moment by moment.  As I say “I cannot, but You can”, and give up my will to Jesus’ Will, my surrender allows Jesus to fill me full of His Spirit.  His Holy Spirit then can direct me, fill me full of Love and Forgiveness. As I surrender I allow Jesus to live through me.

As I have said before, what a wondrous place to be, in the Potter’s hands, being molded and formed by the mighty and awesome GOD of the universe, into the very vessel He desires me to be. What Love I have from and in my LORD Master Jesus Christ!

And in obedience, I return GOD’s great Love to Him through my surrendered life and worship of Him. Only then can “I” accomplish what He commands of me in Mark 12:30.

Oh, Father GOD, thank you!  Thank You for Your Grace, Your Mercy and Your Love.  Thank you for bringing me back from that emptiness and wandering. LORD Master, I am sorry for my trip into self-dog mode. LORD Master, please forgive me.

LORD Master, I surrender to You my life. Please, make Your voice strong and loud. Keep my self-dog’s bark inaudible.

 LORD Master, help those that are finding themselves in the same place I was – in the land of selfishness and pride. Help them to come to You and surrender their lives to You. 

Raise up in us open and willing heart so that we may surrender to You now and forever more.

                                                                                                                                                                         LORD Master, You are everything we need!  Thank You!

Amen