A Foundation of LoveSample

All He Asks of Us Is Love

One of the gospel’s most life-giving, transformational truths is that of everything we have to offer God, of everything in this life that we must give; he desires our love the most. To love God is all-encompassing. Colossians 3:14 says,

“And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

To love God is to pursue a life of wholehearted devotion to a King who is wholeheartedly devoted to us. To love God is to place ourselves in this never-ending, blessed cycle of giving and receiving limitless love.

The simple truth that God wants our love frees us from frivolous pursuits. It frees us from systems and practices rooted in “should” rather than genuine desire. God will take us however he can get us. He’ll take us if all we have to give is a belief that we should serve him or be with him. He never desires to keep us in that place. He longs to love us to a level that we would live and serve him from our full devotion as the natural response to his overwhelming affection for us.

1 John 4:16 says,

“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”

Allow 1 John 4:16 to create an image in your mind for a second. Picture what it would be like to abide in God and have him abide in you. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a vision of what that would be like.

So great is God’s love for us that he makes himself available to abide in him. So great are his affections that we could have him abiding in us. If we pursue love above all else, we will discover a wellspring of simplicity and life rooted in wholehearted devotion to the God of love.

Cast off all other pursuits today in light of God’s call to love. Cast off the striving and tireless work of doing life rooted in the “should” and let God love you to a place of love-based obedience. Find rest today in the truth that God is simply after your heart. Open up to him and receive his vast affection. 1 Corinthians 16:14 says,

“Let all that you do be done in love.”

May you abide in the heart of your heavenly Father and allow him to come in and meet with you so all you do today might be done in love.

Prayer

1. Meditate on the call of God to love. Allow Scripture to fill you with a wholehearted desire to love God in all you do.

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27

“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 1 John 4:16

2. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with a fresh revelation of God’s love for you. Receive the love of God and allow it to cast out all fear and reservation.

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” 1 John 4:18

3. Respond to the affections of God with your own. Tell God how you feel in his presence. Thank him for all that he’s done for you. Enter into the cycle of giving and receiving affection.

“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19