Why do you call yourself a Christian? Is it out of duty to a past decision? Or because you’re still in love with God?

As time passes it can be easy to forget our first passionate declaration of faith. Consequently, we begin to see our relationship with God as one in which we need to appease Him. As our devotional from Our Daily Bread today reminds us, our faith should be informed primarily by an all encompassing love for God and His ways:

When Jesus was asked to name the greatest command in the Law, He replied, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment (Matt. 22:37-38). The questioner wanted to test Jesus, but the Lord answered him with the key element in pleasing God. First and foremost, our relationship with Him is a matter of the heart.

If we see God as a taskmaster and consider obedience to Him as a burden, then we have joined those of whom the Lord said, I have this against you, that you have left your first love (Rev. 2:4).

Would you say that your faith in God is based on love or something else? If it’s based on something else, what would it take for you to remember and pursue the original love commitment that lead you to Him?

Just a quick note on the relaxed posting schedule over the past few weeks. Most of our team was out on vacation, but we’re slowly getting caught up and getting back into the swing of things. We hope you had a wonderful Holiday season!

By: Chris. This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 4th, 2011 at 6:01 pm and is filed under Devotional, Faith, god. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.