How To Love the Lord thy God

With all your heart, soul, mind and strength

Chapter 13 The Vision

“Be thou my vision O lord of my heart, not be none else to me save that thou art”. An old Irish hymn.

“Whoa whoa wait a minute I thought this book was all about how to love God, all I have read so far is sin, temptations, tensions, fighting. What happened to the loving God part?” You may be saying.

We are getting there, once again I will remind you that this is not going to be easy.  After all the prize is huge. Ever met someone who is madly in love with the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you? If you have then you would know just how big a prize it is, better then all the gold in the whole world. Better then anything you can possible think of. For you to love God is the holy grail of Christendom. It’s everything.

“But why does it have to be so hard.” Because it is so valuable. Think about the story of the pearl dealer who after he found the pearl of great price he went and sold all that he had just so he could buy that one pearl. It cost him everything he had but he felt it was worth it.

We are getting to the love part, finally. But trust me you just can’t skip the prior chapters and go right to this one. It is just not going to work that way.

This brings us to Psalm 18. In this psalm we will finally uncover the secret. We will learn what the Psalmist David learned, so here goes, it is a long quote so bear with me.

In my distress I called upon the LORD;

to my God I cried for help.

From his temple he heard my voice,

and my cry to him reached his ears.

Then the earth reeled and rocked;

the foundations also of the mountains trembled

and quaked, because he was angry.

Smoke went up from his nostrils,

and devouring fire from his mouth;

glowing coals flamed forth from him.

Are you reading this! The earth shook the mountains trembled, because he was angry. Oh how great and terrible his anger, I wouldn’t want to be the offending party. Lets read on…

He bowed the heavens and came down;

thick darkness was under his feet.

He rode on a cherub and flew;

he came swiftly on the wings of the wind.

He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him,

thick clouds dark with water.

Out of the brightness before him

hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds.

The LORD also thundered in the heavens,

and the Most High uttered his voice,

hailstones and coals of fire.

And he sent out his arrows and scattered them;

he flashed forth lightnings and routed them.

Then the channels of the sea were seen,

and the foundations of the world were laid bare

at your rebuke, O LORD,

at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.

He definitely is angry. In His anger He came down from on high to punish His enemies, arrows, lightenings, the whole world shaking at HIs rebuke at the blast of his nostrils. But who is the object of his great and terrible wrath? Let’s find out…

He sent from on high, he took me;

he drew me out of many waters.

He rescued me from my strong enemy

and from those who hated me,

for they were too mighty for me.

They confronted me in the day of my calamity,

but the LORD was my support.

He brought me out into a broad place;

he rescued me, because he delighted in me.

 Now we know who he is angry at. He is angry at your enemies and he has come down to kick their butts into the next universe. And get this, he is doing this for you. That’s right just for you. Why? Because he loves you and you clung to him praying and begging him to deliver you from all your enemies, your temptations. He came to your rescue, you because you trusted him to be your fortress, your refuge, your deliverer, your rock , your shield. I started in the middle of the Psalm, now lets read the beginning.

I love you, O LORD, my strength.

The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer,

my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,

my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised,

and I am saved from my enemies.

The cords of death encompassed me;

the torrents of destruction assailed me;

the cords of Sheol entangled me;

the snares of death confronted me.

Here we finally find someone who loves the Lord, we can learn volumes from him, it’s King David. There are many Christians who disparage David. Please don’t do that. We are looking for folks who can help us, we are not looking for perfection and we are not getting into the business of critiquing other peoples lives, especially when we read the Almighty saying that David was a man after his own heart.

In this Psalm we learn the secret of how David came to love God with all his heart. It was the battling with the Lord at his right hand and seeing the awesome anger of God, angry not at you but at the enemies of your soul, seeing Him in his minds eye coming to his rescue and smashing his enemies to smithereens .

Do you see it? Can you visualize it? This is the vision I’m talking about, and when this happens to you, will result in you falling in love with the Almighty. How can you help it? The scene unfolding is epic and you are a part of it, whoa baby.

If you are not there yet, don’t worry it will happen just stay in the trenches with the Lord, keep fighting, keep trusting and keep winning those battles trust me the love will come. 

 “The LORD bless you

and keep you;

the LORD make his face shine on you

and be gracious to you;

the LORD turn his face toward you

and give you peace. ” Amen.