When we’re making decisions, we must do more than simply consider God’s viewpoint as helpful input. In every case, God’s way of looking at things ought to be decisive. A unique, concentrated desire for God’s glory ought to move our every action.
Out of all the things we do, praying is surely one of the most significant. In prayer we are actually speaking to our Creator. And the manner in which we pray, perhaps more than anything else, indicates how diligent we are in our love for God.
Love and desire for God should stir so deeply within us that we seek Him at all costs. If God is indeed our Creator, no less than this is required. It would be the greatest folly imaginable to treat God as merely one of our peripheral interests.
Knowing God has never trifled with us ought to make us determine, out of sheer gratitude, to take Him seriously. Knowing what our atonement cost Him, how can we simply dabble in religion? Trifling with God is the most horrible form of ingratitude.
If God’s chosen means of influence is compassionate love, we should be slow to use any “stronger” or “more effective” means. And if we truly hope to see others influenced by compassion, we must be ready to do the same difficult things that God did.
None of the unique endowments of men and women are insignificant. Each has its counterpart in God’s character and needs to be taken seriously in our own character and in our own interactions. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the matter of love.
Reverence is the posture of voluntary receptivity, an eagerness for everything about God. By virtue of our creation, all of us have a built-in hunger for God; humility and gratitude mean acknowledging that hunger and doing what is right about it.
There is no higher request we can make than to be filled with God. When we see this as the meaning of life — to be filled with God ourselves, and then to communicate Him to others — we can begin to fulfill the potential for which we were made.
It is remarkable that God offers to every one of us the possibility of walking with Him. No matter how badly we’ve wrecked our past, God is willing for us to walk with Him the rest of the way home, if we’ll accept His pardon on His terms.
To be the friends of God, through His Son Jesus Christ, is no passive or slothful thing. It is the active enjoyment of all the thoughts, words, and deeds that flow between those whose love is strong enough to govern their character and their conduct.
