Lately, I have been thinking about how much sin is in the church and the hearts of Christians. Sinful practices have become social norms, and no one wants to call these practices out for fear of being called judgmental. I get this, and I am working through how to stand up against sin and preach the message of John the Baptist but doing it from the right place, a place of love and not judgment. Through this process, God revealed a clear message to me; Christians would be choosing to please God over their flesh if we were in love with Him.
Let me clarify; there is a difference between being tempted, struggling with a sin, making a mistake and giving in, and choosing sin as a lifestyle. We will always face temptations, and we will all struggle with certain sins more than someone else but choosing to resist the devil and get back on track when we screw up is the difference between dwelling in sin and justifying it. No one is perfect besides Jesus, but seeking him and falling in love with him will give us the desire to live holy and the ability to crucify our flesh daily.
We must fall in love with God to ever see true change in our lives. We sing songs about being desperate for him, but is that true? I know for me; I can not say that it is entirely true. I want it to be though, I want God to be my everything and for everything else to fade in comparison. Do you want God more than anything or anyone else? Can you answer honestly yes to that question? So how do we fall in love with God?
Get to Know God
Before you fall in love with someone, you have to get to know them. The same can be said for us loving God; we must know who he is. Thankfully the Bible is chalked full of verses that tell of his characteristics and nature. We can learn who God is simply by spending time in scripture. We must create the habit of spending time with God to grow our relationship with him.
Because of this, I have started to attempt waking up earlier than usual to spend an uninterrupted amount of time with God. Losing extra sleep to develop my relationship with him is worth it; it tells God that I value him more than I value sleep.
In this time, I read the Bible or write down scriptures on a particular subject. For instance, if I want to know his character, I will do a google search for verses about God’s character and then write them down in a notebook. I heard once that when you write something down, you retain the information better, so just reading the scriptures is not enough for me.
I also try to leave my phone alone (except for verse googling) and pray prayers filled with praise before needs. I am hardly perfect at this practice. I am still in the stages of creating a habit. But hopefully, with more practice, this time with God will develop into my favorite part of the day.
Make God a Priority
Your relationship with God must become a priority for growth. We face many distractions in our lives that take valuable time away from God. They are easy to give in to and miss as tools from the enemy, but that is what they are. Television, social media, games, or books are some of the many distractions the devil will use.
When you come home from a stressful day, you probably want to disengage and do something mindless to relax. But instead, we should be seeking rest and renewal through our relationship with God. If we prioritized God in our lives, would we be as overwhelmed and stressed out? What if we created the habit of coming home and entering into praise through worship music or turning on a sermon to refocus our hearts?
The Result of Loving God
When we love a person, we want to please them. We enjoy making them happy and want to show them how important they are to us. How we please God is by following his commandments. Jesus states in John, If you love me, keep my commands. (John 14:15) Obedience is God’s love language. Again we see Jesus speak about obedience in verse 23; Jesus replied, Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
The more we make God our number one priority and fall in love with him, the more we will desire to please him through obedience. The sin problem in the church would begin to diminish if we placed a higher value on our relationship with God and truly fell in love with him. May we truly be desperate for him in this new year.
Reference Verse: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+14%3A15&version=NIV
Kit says
Hey Carrie. This is an excellently written post. This was a completely new experience for me as I don’t know much about this topic, so I learned some new stuff from you.
PS: I just checked out your “about me” and your dog Aria is absolutely precious. 🙂
carrie says
I’m so glad you enjoyed it and were able to learn some things! Thank you, she is spoiled rotten! 🙂
Keith White says
As always Carrie you are spot on thank you so much.
carrie says
Thank you! It is always nice to have confirmation that I’m writing what God wants me to! Praying for you and Carolyn this week.
Mihaela | https://theworldisanoyster.com/ says
Beautifully written. It compels us to take a few minutes to think deeper about things we often ignore.
Audrey perry says
Very good. Keep it up we need young voices speaking the truth.
carrie says
Thank you Audrey! 🙂
Linda Howard says
Thank you Carrie, for your well written, instructional words. Keep it up. Love you!
carrie says
Thank you Linda! Love you!