GraceCreates

By Jon Walker

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Luke 10:27 (NIV)

God wants your heart to beat in such perfect rhythm with his own that your passions merge with his passions. God wants you to love others as if your heart were one with his heart.

And the way you start loving others with a heart like God’s is to first love God with all your heart. This means you focus your heart on those things that matter most to God and you let go of anything that hinders your ability to align with God’s heart.

Jesus matched his heart with the Father’s heart, obeying everything the Father told him to do. His heart beat so closely with the Father’s that he did nothing without the Father’s direction and blessing. King David was called a man after God’s own heart because he cared about the things that mattered most to God and because he did what God told him to do.

Your heart can beat as one with God’s – That’s his design, and he wouldn’t set you up for failure or ask you to do something he’s unwilling to support. He is working toward brining your heart into rhythm with his.

You can love with whole-hearted God-love – The Holy Spirit connects you to God’s love, and it will flow through you to others.

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.

By Jon Walker
 
Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: “I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown.” Jeremiah 2:2 (NIV)
 
The word devotion in Jeremiah 2:2 is a translation of the Hebrew word kesed, which is often translated as “loving mercy” or “loving kindness.” It is a love of relentless pursuit, and throughout the Bible, it shows up like mile-markers measuring God’s grace-chase after his prodigal sons and daughters, refusing to let them get away from the mercy of his love.

But something surprised me in these prophetic words from Jeremiah. In a sense, God says, “I remember the devoted, loyal love of your youth. You were like a new bride with love dancing in your eyes, and you’d follow me through the desert or into a desolate land.”

In a sense, God says, “I remember your youth, when you chased after me with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.” If you once chased after God with every bit of your being, then it is possible to do it again.

God says we’re capable of giving him our whole love. If he says we can, why do we say we can’t?

If you’d like to receive these devotionals regularly, you can sign-up at www.gracecreates.com/subscribe/. Jon Walker writes from www.gracecreates.com. He is a Zondervan author, and the former writer/editor of the Purpose Driven Life On-Line Devotionals. This devotional is copyrighted 2008 by Jon Walker. Used by permission.