Created for a Love Relationship
Memory verse: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37-38)
Review the Seven Realities:
God is always at work around you
God pursues a continuing love relationship with you that is real and personal
God invites you to become involved with Him in His work
God speaks by the Holy Spirit, through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways
God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action
You must make major adjustment in your life to join God in what He is doing
You come to know God by experience as you obey Him, and He accomplishes Hs work through you
If I tried to summarize the entire Old Testament, it would be expressed in this verse: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deut. 6:4-5).
This heart-cry of God is expressed throughout the Old testament. The essence of the New testament is the same. Quoting from Deuteronomy, Jesus said the greatest commandment in the law is “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). Everything in your Christian life, everything about knowing Him and experiencing Him, everything about knowing His will depends on the quality of your love relationship with God. If that is not settled, nothing in your life will be right.
Read these Scriptures and answer the following questions:
“Therefore, choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days…” (Deut. 30:19b-20a)
“…but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8)
“Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him” (John 14:21)
Who is your life?
In what ways has God demonstrated His love for us?
What does God promise to do in response to us loving Him?
Who loved first (us or God)?
What is the one thing God wants from you? He wants you to love Him with all your being. Experiencing God depends on you having this relationship of love. A love relationship with God is more important than any other single factor in your life.