This time of year, many people are setting goals for the coming year - maybe you've even set some of your own! Looking to the Lord for His priorities for us is a very important activity that He can use to bring us deeper with Him!
While over the past months the Lord has been beautifully making priorities clear, I began to think about the top goal for this year…
Love Jesus.
This is the goal of my life – and of this year.
Again, yes, I have other sub-goals and things the Lord is leading to grow in, but they pale in comparison and all flow from this goal.
The longer I live {smile}, the more I see so clearly that it is all about JESUS! His call to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30) is right where we are satisfied, He is glorified, and others are radically blessed.
This all begins with knowing Him and being loved with His pursuing love – in salvation and the resulting personal relationship with Him.
As we are seeking Him, seeing Him for how wonderful He is, and soaking in His boundless love, love for Him increasingly comes naturally.
This love motivates and fuels us to trust and obey Him, seek Him more, destroy idols that rob our love of Him, and long to share His love with others.
It is Jesus!
It begins with Him,
is about Him,
and ends with Him.
Jesus is the:
Source – of His transforming love to us
Satisfaction – of His love in our hearts
Supply – of love to love Him and others
These verses help capture it so well:
“…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…” (Heb. 12:1-2)
“Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed.” (Psalm 34:5)
“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” (Psalm 34:8)
“For he satisfies the longing soul, and the hungry soul he fills with good things.” (Psalm 107:9)
“Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)
And it is this place – and only here – that we are truly happy.
When Jesus is first, foremost, and the focus of our love, heart, and life – the complications of life, questions we encounter, weaknesses we face, longings we realize, etc. – all find their place.
I know personally that when I am looking to Jesus and His love for my all and responsively loving Him, I am happier than words can express. But, when my gaze shifts to other things and people to fill my needs, is when I know emptiness and begin to lose my joy.
Jesus is so wonderful, He loves you so deeply, and He is so worthy of all your love.
Nothing and no one in this world even compares to Him.
He is pursuing your heart with His matchless love, pouring out His grace for you to draw near, and calling you to love Him above all – in your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Ways we live our responsive love to Him include receiving His grace to:
~ treasure Him more than anyone or anything – giving Him first place in your heart.
~ let your thoughts be fixed on and filled with Him.
~ hope and trust in Him vs. yourself, people, etc.
~ cherish His Word (the Bible) and receive His grace to walk in obedience to Him.
~ make choices and pursue what will cause you to know, love, and bring glory to Him.
~ live investing your time, energy, and resources in love for Him and His glory.
These are daily things that, when pursued, give us more of Jesus and grow us in our love for Him - which are exactly what we want!
Think of reaching the goal in soccer - the team works with all its focus, energy, and passion to get the goal. That is how it should – and can be by His grace – in our relationship with Jesus!
I want to live moment by moment soaking in His love and in love to Him – starting my day in worship for His love and ending the day in loving thanks to Him.
I know I will not love perfectly… but, I know that His love is what purchased my forgiveness and will pick me up when I fail.
Jesus - the One who IS Love (1 John 4:16), who loved us first (1 John 4:19), whose love never fails (Jer. 31:3), and who loved me while I was still a sinner (Romans 5:8) – is that One who holds my life, continues to draw my heart, and gives me grace to love Him.
In Jesus alone, we find all the satisfaction that our hearts are longing for.
Wherever you are at today and whatever you will face this year, if you are in Jesus - soaking in His love for you, and loving out of love for Him - this year will beautifully give you more of Him.
Will you join me in seeking for His grace to know Him and His love – and to love Him above all?
It is going to be a good year.
Thanks so much for sharing these truths, Amy!
ReplyDeleteEmily, our Jesus is so amazing and it is such a treasure to seek Him together! May He give you more of Himself than ever before in this coming year!
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