Red Wednesday's Wisdom - CHG #2, Part Three

Love the Lord
I would like to start out praying these words,  Father God, this past week we began to explore the possibilities of lessening our clutter by considering what it means to love You.  If we could interview the mind and heart of every person, we would quickly discover that most of us desire to be loved, but we struggle to even know what that love looks like.  So Lord, as we begin to gather our thoughts and feelings as they relate to loving You, we ask that You teach us about Your love.  You are the Creator of love, so it can only be through You that we learn to love and connect with You, ourselves, and one another. 

This past week your SW was about reflecting on the color green and what it symbolized for you as you grow in your knowledge of God and His love.  The only way I could even begin to learn about what it meant to grow in my ability to love the Lord was to be in His Word.  When I slow myself down and take even a few minutes to be in God’s Word I am blessed with the awesome revelation of knowing what God Himself thinks and feels! 

The Book of John is a great starting point to learn about God’s love.  In fact, John was known as the loving disciple.  His Book is filled with Scriptures that will grow you in understanding who God is.  The Book of John gives us focus on GOD being true love.

It was through God’s Word that I learned about the traps that kept me from truly knowing and loving God.  Have you fallen prey to any of them?

Psychics
Numerology
Astrology
Horoscopes
Religion verses relationship
The occult
“The Course in Miracles”
“The Celestine Prophecy”
New Age thinking
Evolution and Darwinism

Here’s What God Says About Loving the Lord.
♥ Jesus says in 1 John 4:8, “But anyone who does not love does not know God – for God is love.”    GOD is LOVE.  I need to remind myself of these three words over and over all of the time, because when I show love for myself and others, I am expressing that I know God, but when I am not loving towards myself and others, I am expressing that I do not know God.

♥ Jesus also says in John 15:16, “You didn’t choose me.  I chose you.”  In other words, love is a choice and it started with God.  God chose to love you and that is why He created you.  You are on this earth because of God’s decision to love you!  God’s love is never forced.  If love is forced then it is not of God and it is not love.  Forced love is robotic and God wants you to choose if you want to love Him.  God wants you to choose if you want to love yourself.  And God wants you to choose if you want to love others.
It’s a command by God to love, but you have free will to choose whether you want to or not.  Will you choose to receive God’s love or reject it?

Loving the Lord is the only way I am going to love the way God says to love.
♥ First, I am going to commit to knowing Him (CHG #1)
♥ Second, I am going to commit to loving Him (CHG #2)

Until we grasp that God is Love, our clutter will keep us in bondage as it relates to the MMESS PR:
♥ Mental
♥ Material
♥ Emotional
♥ Situational
♥ Spiritual

♥ Physical Health
♥ Relational

As we conclude with CHG # 2, your SW this week is to reflect on the traps that have kept you from growing in your knowledge and love for God.  Meditate on the Scriptures from this posting.  Journal some of the thoughts and feelings that come to you as you go through this reflective time.  God is speaking to you through these Scriptures, and when you journal just a one word thought or feeling in response to them, you are interacting with God and this is prayer.  We will talk more about our prayers when I introduce you to CHG # 3 the next time we meet.