Have You Lost That Loving Feeling?

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Before we get to today’s article, I just want to mention that am writing from the perspective of a man that has experienced many of the challenges of which I write…. and those spiritual battles continue daily. The articles are implications of what it means to obey the commandment to raise your children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. They require some reflection and are particularly for Christians who, as Peter would say, are diligently seeking to confirm their calling and are making every effort to supplement their faith. Said more succinctly, serious Christians. If you know other believers who desire to walk more faithfully with the Lord, please forward an article to them and tell them to sign up for future articles. Thanks so much!

As a new Christian (30 years ago), I loved to read the Bible. I just couldn’t get enough of it. In fact, I was so enthralled with reading scripture and learning more about our Lord that I neglected some of my God given duties (like make money and provide for my family!) for a time.

In those first couple of years of my new life, I would read just as much of the Old Testament as the New Testament and was thrilled to see how God worked in creation, the covenants, how He brought the Israelites out of bondage, and more. As I continued to study, I found that I was first surprised at the Israelites for their disobedience, and later actually became frustrated with their response to a loving and gracious God. I mean, how can you not trust God when He saves you through plagues, opens the sea for your deliverance, and sends you food from the sky for all of your needs? Foolish Israelites!

And it wasn’t as if God had not also provided plenty of warnings about mixing in with the rest of the culture and going after the things that the other nations loved.

You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— for the LORD your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the LORD your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth (Deuteronomy 6:14-15).

At one time, those “foolish” Israelites were passionate about God, but as the rest of the Old Testament tells us, they chose to love the gods of other nations and consequently thought and lived like those ungodly nations. They had found loves and lovers other than the one true God, and from God’s perspective, were adulterers.

Then the word of the LORD came to me: “Thus says the LORD: Even so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing (Jeremiah 13:8).

I have seen your abominations, your adulteries and neighing’s, your lewd whorings, on the hills in the field. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will it be before you are made clean?” Jeremiah (13:27)

Well, it wasn’t much later in my new Christian life that I found out that I was foolish, just as foolish as the Israelites. In all of my endeavors to obey the Lord, I failed much. And in all of what I found in the world around me, I was drawn to love the things that God hates and has clearly warned me (New Testament and Old Testament) to avoid. As I grew in my Christian life, I became more aware of the never ending spiritual war that we are in and how to remain (not perfectly) faithful to the Lord.

How about you? We have to be in this world, but if you examined your life, would you see that much of the thinking and loves of the world have crept into your life?

Do you remember when you first turned away from your former life and became one of His?

Mathew 13:44 describes finding Christ like a hidden treasure. The man that found the treasure sold all he had to buy the field that had that treasure. I remember feeling that way when I found Christ. I held nothing back. I knew I had no right to hold on to anything. Did you think that way?

And immediately after that passage, verses 45-46 describes finding Christ as something of the greatest value. Do you feel that way about your Christian life today?

Do you realize that you are in a battle for your soul? Have you allowed the pleasures of this world to dominate your life like it did with the Israelites? Have the distractions of the world prevented you from the tremendous effort and dedication it takes to raise your children in the discipline and instructions of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4)?

As with the Israelites, God is the kind of God that says, “come back to me.” He is full of mercy and grace and will not only forgive you, but also enable you to live a life that is completely different from the life of a worldling. Go to the Lord in prayer and confess your sins. He is faithful to forgive you.