God wants to guard your heart. He desires to protect you from pursuing a path that will hurt yourself and others. He is asking you to consider his way, his perspective.
God is reality. He is the author of beauty, love and life. God knows us better than we know ourselves. God sees, God knows, and most important, God loves.
This is the most amazing story I’ve ever heard. God knows me, the depths of me, the darkness of me, and yet he loves me. While others rejected me, while I rejected myself, God came to me, held me in the midst of my sin-sick suffering, and loved me.
Not only did God love me, but he also rescued me, he pulled me to a rock that was higher than myself, he gave me a right standing I did not earn and could not earn. He gave me righteousness as a grace gift.
Instead of judgement, I received favor. Instead of death, I was given life. He clothed me when I was naked, he comforted me in the midst of my despair. He gave me a new song to sing. He gave me the song of a newborn child, the song of a softened heart, a tender soul.
God loved me when I was unlovable. He gave my life meaning, hope and healing. God ushered me into a kingdom of love. He made me a son in his kingdom, and he gave me the sacred task of taking his rescuing love to others.
God is love and my purpose is rooted in that love. Let the politicians fight for a piece of the crumbling kingdoms of man, I
choose to build a better kingdom. I choose to allow the love of God to constrain and define my very life and existence.
If the task is not rooted in God’s love, then it is not my task. If the mission does not exude God’s grace and goodness, then I decline the assignment.
Love is a lasting truth. Love is a transformational truth. Love is the reason for the existence of every Christian. If we lose the assignment of love, then we lose the reason for our name. We are Christ followers. We love, because he first loved us.
Consequently, our language must be a language of love. If we are known for anything, we must be known for our love. If we are not known for our love, then we do not serve Christ. If we are not known for our love, then the love of Christ is not in us.
In 1 Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul writes the following rebuke to a church full of self-righteous Christ followers.
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.”
In other words, without love, our righteous opinions, words and actions mean absolutely nothing. The goal of our life is not to stand for what’s right, but to demonstrate our right standing through the power of love. 1 John 4:7 says it best, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.”
With this reality in mind, today let us choose the path of love.
“Live from Seattle with Doug Bursch” can be heard 4-6 p.m. weekdays on KGNW 820 AM. Doug Bursch also pastors Evergreen Foursquare Church. Evergreen meets at 10 a.m. Sundays at 2407 M St. SE next to Pioneer Elementary School. He can be reached at www.fairlyspiritual.org or doug@fairlyspiritual.org.
