Love In Action

Thursday, July 24, 2014 Posted by Debbie Legg

What God wants from us, most of all, is our hearts.

And so the Lord says, "These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. And their worship of me is nothing but man-made rules learned by rote.” (Isaiah 29:13 NLT)

I’ve really been led lately to take a step back and examine why I do what I do, say what I say, feel and think what I feel and think. What is the condition of my heart? What motivates it? The closer I grow to Jesus the more love is a motivating factor, but there are many others at play as well.

I’m realizing just how motivated I am by self-protection. Fear of what others think of me is huge, too. Selfishness. Pride. Impatience. Diminishment. Abandonment. Discouragement. Believing the lies of the Enemy. My heart is full of these things and they wrestle with love for prominence.

Jesus is slowly revealing all of these to me. It’s overwhelming at times. There is so much to be cleaned up and thrown away.

Jesus was motivated entirely by love, both for His Father and for us. Everything we see Him do and say in scripture needs to be understood through the fact that He is love in action.

It all boils down to our motivation. I want to be entirely motivated by love, to be love in action.

I know it will be a lifelong process. I know there will be setbacks. I know I will never reach perfection.

But with His love for me, with me, in me, through me, motivating me, all things are possible.

Create in me a clean heart, O God. (Psalm 51:10 NASB)