David in Psalm 51 says, “You desire truth in the inward parts”. Truth on the inside – an integrity that reveals something real and genuine, not concocted of spin and empty rhetoric. Following on from last week introducing this concept of a ‘genuine revolution’, I want to highlight where this genuineness starts – from a heart of love.
I remember an old song that has always been burned into my heart and whenever God challenges me on a deep issue such as this, it has become my hearts cry in return. “Change my heart oh God, make it ever true, Change my heart oh God, make me more like you.”
It is human to desire truth. It is a reflection of our Creator that we all desire to experience real love. We are called to be a genuine expression of WHO God is, not merely doing what He does.
We must be genuine in our love – our love for God and our love for others. Everything we do in life must start and end with genuine love. Love is never to be an after-thought. The well-known & true saying goes: ‘people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care’.
There are two things about love that I’d like to explore briefly. Firstly the understanding that we are loved, and secondly how that affects the love we share with others.
For too many people, love is something they are willing to share (albeit selectively), but to receive that same love, let alone the kind of unconditional love that Father God has for them, is a very difficult task. But to claim to share His love, and yet to not freely receive it is a contradiction, and exposes a root that can quickly develop into a lack of genuine love – an integrity gap.
That may sound somewhat harsh, but let me tell you, this has been my personal experience, and through various past failures I have painfully seen how despite my eagerness to serve God and lovingly serve others, I have kept God’s love at arms length because I didn’t ‘feel’ worthy.
How can we claim to distribute His love, without first receiving it? We all know that love isn’t just a feeling, and yet so often we are still waiting for the day we have a ‘watershed moment’ where all our guilt and insecurities and fear are all blown away as we are fully embraced by God. Hang on a moment, doesn’t that sound a lot like the salvation that God has already made FREELY available to all?!
The issue here is not God’s timing in revealing His love for us. The issue here is not that God is still trying to work out how to unlock your unique set of insecurities and doubts. The issue here is that it is our responsibility to genuinely accept that we are forgiven (and everything that is wrapped up in that).
This is a tough message, and I completely understand how hard it can be to accept the fact that I am not just accepted by God, but that He finds me lovable. That He deeply desires to be intimate with me, and accepts me unconditionally. For a brilliant series on this, see David McCracken’s message titled “So Loved”.
The implications for us as we genuinely accept and daily experience His love is phenomenal, and a huge bonus in this deal are OTHERS. A real sign that we are in a deep intimate relationship with Father God is its affect on those around us. We begin to reflect God’s genuine love for others. Jesus said to his disciples… (Matt 10:8) Freely you have received, now FREELY GIVE. Don’t complicate it, don’t politicize it, don’t discriminate – freely give.
It’s that simple. We can do all the right things, but if its not for the right reasons, Paul tells us (1 Corinthians 13:1-2) that we count for nothing. Our primary motivation should be love.
Because sometimes it’s not so much about doing the right things as it is about doing them for the right reasons.
