Here is another quote from Andrew Murray’s Absolute Surrender.
“And how can I learn to love? I cannot learn to love until the Spirit of God fills my heart with God’s love, and I begin to long for God’s love in a very different sense from which I have sought it so selfishly – as a comfort, a joy, a happiness, and a pleasure to myself. I will not learn it until I realize that ‘God is love,’ and to claim to receive it as an indwelling power for self-sacrifice. I will not love until I begin to see that my glory, my blessedness, is to be like God and like Christ, in giving up everything in myself for my fellow-men.”
God is love. He is the origin our love. We love because he first loved us. He demonstrates his love to us, transforms our hearts, and enables us to love him and love others.
Christians know we are to love God and to love others. We know love is the fruit of the Spirit. We know we should possess and radiate love. But, as Murray states, we often pursue love first and foremost for selfish reasons, such as personal comfort, joy, happiness, and pleasure. The problem isn’t seeking joy or comfort for ourselves; the problem is when we place the priority on ourselves above God.
The call of the Christian life is self-sacrifice. We are to give up our cravings for our glory and instead seek, above all else, the glory of Christ. We are to seek him, know him, depend on him, and live for him. It is in this type of life that true comfort, joy, happiness, and pleasure come. The giving up of the self-life and the living of the Christ-life leads to amazing joy.
This doesn’t come naturally to man. We need to love of God to transform us – our hearts, our minds, our motivations, our goals. We need God to regenerate our hearts and we need him to continually fill us with fresh love for him and for others.
Let’s pray today for greater love from God, a giving up of the self-life, and a increasing desire and ability to live all of life for God’s glory.
“And how can I learn to love? I cannot learn to love until the Spirit of God fills my heart with God’s love, and I begin to long for God’s love in a very different sense from which I have sought it so selfishly – as a comfort, a joy, a happiness, and a pleasure to myself. I will not learn it until I realize that ‘God is love,’ and to claim to receive it as an indwelling power for self-sacrifice. I will not love until I begin to see that my glory, my blessedness, is to be like God and like Christ, in giving up everything in myself for my fellow-men.”
God is love. He is the origin our love. We love because he first loved us. He demonstrates his love to us, transforms our hearts, and enables us to love him and love others.
Christians know we are to love God and to love others. We know love is the fruit of the Spirit. We know we should possess and radiate love. But, as Murray states, we often pursue love first and foremost for selfish reasons, such as personal comfort, joy, happiness, and pleasure. The problem isn’t seeking joy or comfort for ourselves; the problem is when we place the priority on ourselves above God.
The call of the Christian life is self-sacrifice. We are to give up our cravings for our glory and instead seek, above all else, the glory of Christ. We are to seek him, know him, depend on him, and live for him. It is in this type of life that true comfort, joy, happiness, and pleasure come. The giving up of the self-life and the living of the Christ-life leads to amazing joy.
This doesn’t come naturally to man. We need to love of God to transform us – our hearts, our minds, our motivations, our goals. We need God to regenerate our hearts and we need him to continually fill us with fresh love for him and for others.
Let’s pray today for greater love from God, a giving up of the self-life, and a increasing desire and ability to live all of life for God’s glory.
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