Do you ever stop to ponder what it is that God wants from us?
Does He desire our obedience, or is it our faithfulness? Perhaps it is our sacrifice? The answer is yes, yes, and yes! In various circumstances He does desire these things.
Yet sometimes there is a tendency to focus on God as a celestial higher power that can and will strike us down if we make one wrong move rather than our loving Father who just wants us to know and love Him.
God has been teaching me this lesson lately in my walk with Him. In the world of ministry it is sometimes easy to get focused on all the things I am doing FOR Him that I forget to do it WITH Him. Of course, my perceptive Father knows this about me, so He led me straight to this beautiful verse in Hosea 6:6:
April, I desire loyal love from you over your sacrifice.
I want you to really know Me rather than focus on presenting Me your burnt offerings.
How else can I respond to that except with this?
Yes, Lord I understand. You want me to give You my heart and not just my actions. You want me to know You and Your Word and let it change me from the inside out. To allow Your instructions to move so deeply into my soul that obedience and faithfulness and sacrifice will naturally flow out of me BECAUSE of my loyal love for You.
I don’t know about you, but sometimes my heart is overwhelmed by the gracious and extravagant love of the Lord. He is so patient with me and I’ll never get over the fact that the God of the universe wants to have a deep and abiding relationship with me just as He does with you!
Father, thank You for being a God who desires our loyal love. Help each one of us as we seek to know and love You better.
What a great reminder, especially today as we are having our women’s committee meeting to finalize the plans for our women’s conference. It is not about what we are “doing” for the ladies, it is about loving the ladies. The Lord doesn’t care about a huge conference with hundreds of people, He cares that we serving and loving the ones that are there.
Yes and Amen! Praying for your women’s conference, Dawn. God will be gloried as you love on the ladies. Love you!
April, you don’t remember me, but I knew your Mom and Dad when you were born. They were so excited when you were born. I remember your Dad would go around with a Lysol spray can just to make sure there were no germs around you.
Your writings have inspired and encouraged me, and I thank the Lord for what He has done in and through your life. Keep loving and serving Him. The world needs more voices like yours in this challenging day. Thank you for sharing.
Hello Mrs. Donna! I absolutely remember you and Mr. Jim. I’m chuckling at your comment about Dad and his overprotective nature. He still gets teased about it.
I really appreciate your kind words and encouragement. It is a true blessing…like a little “kiss from heaven” as Mom likes to say. Much love to you today and always!