Loving God? Or Just His Things?

First of all I must appologize for my absence. I have, like all others, let life take control of my time and energy. There are no cute stories or whimsical anecdotes that I will share to make light of my lack of posting.

I have been reading the book, Crazy Love by Francis Chan and have been thoroughly kicked in the teeth by his bold biblical teaching. As Francis described what lukewarm living looks like in today's culture, I began to feel very uncomfortable. The reason was because there were a few of his descriptions that fit my lifestyle. Wow!!! Just when you think you've crested the mountaintop you find that your not even close.

What Francis quoted next though was a painful realization of where my priorities have been. In his book God Is the Gospel, John Piper essentially asks whether we are in love with God:

The Critical question for our generation-and for every generation-is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there?

You know how it feels when you have been in a dark room for an extended amount of time and then suddenly the darkness is pierced when someone turns on the light? Painful, isn't it! So painful that your eyes slam shut involuntarily. It is just as painful when you think you are loving Christ with all your heart and then come to the understanding that really your love has been invested more in His promises rather than in the Person of Jesus Christ. Promises that one day all the mess of this life will pass and we will live in sinless peace. If we are not careful we will invest our love more in God's promises than in Him and His glory. When we find ourselves in this place and feel as though loving God is an obligation or duty instead of a romantic experience there is no wonder we don't see people standing in line, waiting on the church doors to be opened. Anxiously waiting to see the reason of why our lives are so different than anything they have ever seen. If we merely pretend to enjoy God or love Him. . . HE KNOWS! You can't fool Him; don't even try.
My life was created for His purposes and not my own, for His glory and praise and not my own personal fame. My prayer is that my life would be an outpouring of love to my Heavenly Father not because of what He has promised me but because of who He is and that He loved me first when I deserved death.

I will leave you with this amazing prayer that Francis wrote at the end of this life shaking thought:

Jesus, I need to give myself up. I am not strong enough to love You and walk with You on my own. I can't do it, and I need You. I need You deeply and desperately. I believe You are worth it, that You are better than anything else I could have in this life or the next. I want You. And when I don't, I want to want You. Be all in me. Take all of me.
Have Your way with me.