God’s Love Will Change How You Live
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If God’s love doesn’t change how you live, how you think, how you walk, how you talk, and everything about your life, you have not yet experienced God’s love.
We’re prone to look at God’s unconditional love as permissive.
We want to believe that if God’s love is unconditional, it doesn’t have expectations or requirements of us.
While it’s true that we cannot earn God’s love, nor can we make God stop loving us, His love isn’t without expectations about how we live.
Being a disciple of Jesus Christ, by its very definition, requires that we live by His standard.
God has given us His Word so that we learn what His standard of living is, and so that we begin to shape our lives and worldview around that standard.
When we begin to realize just how much God loves us and that He can redeem our failures for His glory, we will be transformed.
David says in Psalm 139:17-18, “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; when I awake, I am still with You.”
Can you even begin to comprehend how much God thinks of you? How many thoughts He has about you?
Maybe you think, “Yeah, I’ll be God is thinking about what a failure I am. What a horrible, awful person I am and what a mess I’ve made of my life!”
If that is what you believe, let this verse encourage you: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11
God’s thoughts of you are so many, you cannot count them, and every thought of you is loving, hopeful, and full of grace and mercy!
The transformation of the power of God’s love is transformational and reaches into every crevice of our lives.
God’s Love Will Change How You Live
In 1 John 4:18, we read about God’s perfect love. “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”
The Greek word “perfect” in this verse is τέλειος or teleios, which means complete or mature.
You see, God’s love not only transforms us, but it also completes and matures us so that the longer we walk with Christ, the more mature our walk becomes.
In Psalm 139, we see that God’s love will change how you live in four very important ways.
1. God’s love will change our tolerance for sin
“For they speak against You wickedly; Your enemies take Your name in vain.” Psalm 139:20
While David has some very strong words to say about wicked people in these verses, we must remember that this was before Christ’s eternal sacrifice on the cross.
Jesus’ blood brought an eternal transformation and opened the way for all to enter into His presence through forgiveness of sins.
Paul said that our battle isn’t against people, but against evil forces, and Peter reminded us that it is God’s will that none perish.
But, while we should have a heart of love for all people, we should love people with God’s love.
And God’s love does not tolerate sin. Sin eternally separates us from God, and God hates sin with a blinding hatred.
This is why it puzzles me how we can entertain ourselves with the things that God hates so passionately.
We should not be able to watch the same movies and TV shows we did before.
We should not be able to read the same books we did before.
We should not be able to go to the same places we did before.
We should not be able to use the same language or tell the same jokes we did before.
Why?
Because those things nailed God’s only Son to the cross and shed His blood – those things are sinful and God hates them with a burning hatred.
2. God’s love will help us hate sin the way He hates sin
“Do I not hate them, O LORD, who hate You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?” Psalm 139:21
While we do not hate people, we will never grieve over their lost souls in the way God does if we don’t learn to hate sin the way He does.
When we hate sin the way God hates sin, we will begin to grieve over the lost the way God grieves over them, because we will understand the seriousness of their lost state.
We cannot weep tears of sorrow for the lost until we have acquired the same burning hatred for sin that God has.
Because when we hate sin the way God hates sin, we will understand the finality of the eternal torment to which they are headed after this life.
And that will drive us to our knees in weeping and sorrow – and a unquenchable longing for them to know God’s love the way we have come to know God’s love.
3. God’s love will search every crevice of our hearts
“Search me, O God, and know my heart… and see if there be any wicked way in me” Psalm 139:23-24
When we truly know God’s love, we will not want to leave any part of our hearts hidden from Him.
Sin builds walls in our hearts, and when we leave sin unchecked in our hearts, we lose the right to say how far, how long, and how much.
We lose the right to say how high the walls go, how much of our hearts will be imprisoned inside of those walls, and how much of God’s love those walls will cost us.
The walls of sin in our hearts block out God’s love, light, and blessing.
It’s not that God has moved. He is right where He’s always been.
It’s not that God has stopped loving us. His love is still flowing like a mighty, healing river.
It’s not that God has stopped blessing us. His blessings are still ready and waiting for us to enjoy.
It’s that our sin has created a wall that is blocking us from feeling His presence, love, and blessing in our lives.
This is why His love daily searches and knows our hearts – so that He can uncover places in our hearts that are not yet fully surrendered to Him.
4. God’s love will remind us to keep eternity in front of our eyes
“And lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:24
There is nothing like the perfect love of God that can tie our hearts to eternity.
When we experience the perfect love of God, the things of this world lose their glitter and shine, and we acquire a more accurate understanding of what really matters.
All of the toys here on earth don’t seem nearly as valuable as eternal riches.
And this is true freedom!
When we begin to see the stuff of earth as, at best, tools to advance God’s kingdom, or at worst as distractions from our true mission and purpose, we are free!
We are free to embrace eternity and see the spiritual realm as more real than the things we can physically see, smell, taste, touch, and hear.
Because we will know – we have the stuff of earth for mere decades, but eternity is never-ending.
We’d rather have the unending joy of God’s pleasure than the temporary pleasure of this world.
Dear sister, the true work of God’s love in our hearts is utterly transformational.
Have you experienced this transforming work of God’s love?
If not, I invite you to read about how you can experience His saving grace and love in your hearts, and how you can grow in Him as a daughter of the King.
If you would like to know more about how you can experience God’s transforming love, feel free to write to mhttps://rosilindjukic.com/contact-me/, and we can talk privately more about this amazing journey of being a daughter of God.
