Do you love God for who He says He is or what He does for you?

Pastor Sarah Edwards

Let me be clear! Because under the law there were so many false pastors spiritually abusing God’s people. God said He had not sent them nor had He even said ‘good morning’ to them (Jeremiah 23). Yet, even today they’re heaping unto themselves houses full of silly women [implied: and insecure men]. God through the mouth of Jeremiah proclaimed He (God) would give His people Pastors after His own heart to teach them who He said He was (Jeremiah 3:15). 

To know God is to love Him. And if we love God, we’ll obey Him and allow His will to be done through us, not ours.

Now, more than 2000 years later, some church folks still don’t know who God has said He is! Ok, so we all know that God is Good, God is Love, God is Light, God is Life and God is Right. But what else do you know about your LORD God?

Perhaps if you stop bragging about what He has done for you lately or grousing that nobody knows the trouble you see, you’ll notice the tear in His eye that He’s shedding for you while you’re flaunting yourself, as if you are special and highly favored. Please stop waving your things in front of His other children’s faces while test-i-lying or being a worry-wart. Jesus on the cross said, it is finished..and so it is. Accept this reality, relax in Him and watch Him manifest His glory in the presence of your enemies.

Do you not yet understand our Father is Holy, no respecter of persons? He did us all a favor by sending His only begotten Son to pay the penalty of our sin. Upon accepting this wonderful gift, we were all saved because of His favor/grace. The finished work on the cross established a ‘common salvation.’ He loves all His children the same because God’s favor is fair!

Seeking God’s face more than His hands causes the brightness of His personal character to be revealed to us that was once hidden behind the curtain of our carnal desires.

God desires to enjoy us as we enjoy consciously His continual supreme greatness, beauty and worth He deposited within us [Colossians 1:24-29]. When God makes His face to shine upon us, a deep desire develops within us to know what His purpose is for us. All we have need of is His what hands have already provided. We can then rest in His presence regardless of what’s happening around us. We have the blessed assurance that our LORD is God and He personally designed our end before allowing us to begin our homeward journey.

The Bible teaches “setting our mind and heart” on God is consciously focusing our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection on God through Christ Jesus. This is the opposite of a mental ascension. (1 Chronicles 22:19) “If you have been raised with Christ, seek/set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth”(Colossians 3:1-2)

Whenever we commit our works unto the LORD, He’ll form our thoughts [Proverbs 16:3] This is what Paul prayed for the church: “May the Lord direct your heart to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ”(2 Thessalonians 3:5).

Nevertheless, there’s always something through, over or around which we must overcome to meet God consciously. Our natural mind cannot understand the Holy things of God. He’s often hidden/veiled. We must go through mediators as the heavens are telling His glory. God reveals himself in His word. He shows Himself to us in circumstances in people lives. We can seek him through these.

Our seeking is our conscious effort to get through the natural means to God in everything. Endless obstacles must be removed from our mind as we flee every spiritually dulling activity because they’ll blur our vision in seeing God’s face clearly in the light of His glory. The biggest obstacle to seeking the Lord is pride. The pride of a wicked face does not seek him (Psalms 10:4). Therefore, humility is essential to seeking the LORD all the time.

Seeking involves calling out, pleading to the LORD to open our eyes, to pull back the curtain of our own blindness and in God’s mercy reveal ourselves to ourselves. “Whoever draws near to God must believe that he exists and He rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). God himself is our greatest reward-not stuff. And when we have Him, we have everything. Therefore, “Seek the Lord presence continually while He may be found. Call upon him while He is near.”(Isaiah 55:6)