SPEAKING OF FAITH: Where does love fit?

by Jul 8, 2024OPINIONS0 comments

By Lamont H. Fuchs, Ed. D.,

excerpt from “Preacher Spurs”, Christian Faith Publishers, 2022

 

Our culture is against us. Satan’s plan of deception is pervasive.

Men especially learn not to need anything. It’s a pride thing. They especially do not need someone else. We fall into the Lone Wolf Theory. Few young men will say they need a woman.  They will say they want one, but they don’t need one.  Does that ever change? For some of us, we know we need our spouse. They may have begun as want, turned into love, and ended as needed. If we only knew, we needed them from the beginning. God’s intended family leader takes a fall backward socially.

Women in the past learned from society; that they needed a man. Men completed women. Men provide for and protect them, and women were made to become men’s partners. In my opinion, that is God’s plan. However, this society is on the flip of that theory.  Times are changing. With all their separate political and social identities, today’s women deny all that. Extreme and total independence is the new goal of women. They don’t need men, and they can still have children without a man around to lead the family. These conflicting social morals result in a breakdown in the God-willed family. This trend, in my view, is the slippery slope to the downfall of all humanity. The results are socially acceptable sins in countless places.

Most Christians submit to needing God. They understand the consequences of sin. They recognize they are sinners. Most Christians know all things come from God. We do need Him. I say ‘most Christians’ because a few people sitting in pews say they know Christ and have no idea of their need to repent and surrender to Christ.

Psalms 145:19 – “He will fulfill the desire of them that fear him.”

He also will hear their cry and will save them. Some people don’t believe or know what they need.

I can remember my mother saying, “You don’t know what you want, do you?” I can’t remember anyone saying, “You don’t know what you need.” There was one time I was in a hardware store looking for a way to fix my outside faucet, and this guy saw me fumbling around with all these pipe fittings and joints, and he asked me, “Do you know what you need?” I said, “I haven’t a clue.”

That’s exactly where the lost souls of this society are living. They don’t know what they don’t know. Everyone needs God; not everyone knows God, and not everyone wants God. They are far from loving God.

That’s where Love fits.

Once we realize our need for God, it is only then that we begin to want God’s grace, mercy, and forgiveness. Our heart softens after the Spirit enters us. Through God’s glorious plan, the Spirit reveals why, how, and what Jesus did to save us. It is then that our hearts fall deep and profoundly in love with God.

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

Do you want God’s Love? He loves you whether you love Him or not. He loved us first.

God loves us. Fact. How do we grow to love Him, which is what He wants? The only way I began to love anyone was after I got to know them and who they were. Do you know my God, my Lord, my Savior?

That’s your question to struggle with today. God wants you to love Him with all your heart, mind, and soul. You already need Him, but He wants you to want Him, praise Him, know Him, and serve Him with your entire being.  Not out of our need, but out of our desire.  Ask for His Spirit. Let God’s love overwhelm you. His love for you will return to Him as love, but you must have it in you. That’s His invitation. Ask Him for His love and Spirit to enter you, and He will take care of the rest. Accept Jesus’ love for you.  He doesn’t need you. He wants you today. You need Him today and every day.

Pray – “Lord God and Heavenly Father, many times in our life, we don’t know what we want, what we need, or how to love. You have all the answers, and it is Your indwelling Spirit that shows us through Your word who You are and our need to serve You and love You. Lord, we ask You to use us to shine Your light so that others might see what they need and want what we have in You. Thank You for Your love, for we know all good things come from You.  Amen.”