Love God

I had recently heard a speaker on the radio preach about the story of the prodigal son. He pointed out that the first thing the prodigal son did after receiving his inheritance was to move out of his fathers house. Isn’t that a great analogy of what we do? We ask God for an abundance of blessings and pray for His favor. We live blessed lives, by the grace of God, and yet spend the majority of our time outside of the Kingdom of God. We take what He gives us and then we move out of his house until we’re in trouble and then we come crawling back praying and begging for His help. I wonder how many people that say they love God actually do? Do you love God just for who He is? Do you ever pray just to be in His presence? Not for what he has done for you and what he might do for you in the future? Do you ever pray without asking for something? If you haven’t thought about it, maybe it’s time.

I had also recently had a discussion with a friend about whether or not God wants us to live abundantly or meekly. I believe we are to live abundantly as kings and my friend believes we are to live in a lesser, modest manner. We both agreed that we are to be humble and giving, the difference lies in our personal lives and finances. To spare all of the details, we both quoted scripture to support our views. One in particular that he began with was the story of the rich young man in Matthew 19:16 Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
17 "Why do you ask me about what is good?" Jesus replied. "There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments."
18 "Which ones?" the man inquired.
Jesus replied, " 'Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony,
19 honor your father and mother, and 'love your neighbor as yourself."
20 "All these I have kept," the young man said. "What do I still lack?"
21 Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.

I’ve often heard this story told for the premise of stating that we are to live almost as peasants to appease Jesus, but I say for the sake of that argument we don’t know the end of the story. This young man was offered treasures in Heaven! Isn’t this worth more than anything on earth? Didn’t God create everything on earth? Then I contend that He will manifest any treasures in heaven here on earth; we are the ones that don’t make it a reality by limiting our thoughts. I believe that is what Jesus was trying to convey when he went on to say:
23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
25When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?"
26 Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

At some point we need to let our faith take over. The Gospel is literally Good News! Love God, trust God, have faith in God. In the end I pared our discussion down to it’s finest point to search in your heart; if you admit that God loves you, do you think he wants you to have the best, or just barely enough to get by?

God speed!