It may be my “duty” to do things that please my wife, but duty does not drive me. Love motivates me to be and do all I can to make her happy. I delight when I do something that she particularly likes. She blesses me with her reaction.
If you serve God as fire insurance to avoid hell, or because God is like a little pet that just brings you (notice the you here) pleasure or warm fuzzies or because you want to put up a show for those in your congregation, well, you’ve missed it.
“Love or Duty” chromolithograph of a painter and a nun; published in Paris by Hangard-Mangué (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
François Fenelon wrote powerful words about this, that if God “were known, He would be loved. God is love, says the apostle John (1 John 4: 8, 16); whoever does not love God, does not know Him, for how could we know love without loving it? It is plain, then, that all those who have only feared God up to this point, have not known Him.
“But who shall know You, O! my God? Whoever shall seek with a whole heart to know You, who shall know self with approbation [warm approval and praise] no longer, and to whom all that is not You shall be as though it were not! The world cannot receive this saying because it is full of self, and vanity, and lies, and is empty of God; but I trust that there will always be souls hungering for God…”
Receive the relationship of the One who loves you, died for you, came to life again for your encouragement. Just say, “Yes” to Jesus.
Love.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5 – see Matthew 22:37 God’s Word).
November 24, 2012
nopew
viewoutsidethepew 
5 responses to “Love With All”
nopew
November 24th, 2012 at 13:48
Yes, the personal vs the system. I’ll take personal, thank you. Nice getting to know you; without the internet I would never have known you were there.
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nopew
November 24th, 2012 at 13:46
Yes, I got it just now but it wasn’t in my comment section! It should be there now.
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greenlightlady
November 24th, 2012 at 13:37
Great post! He wants a relationship with us. Love versus religion…
Blessings ~ Wendy
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robin claire
November 24th, 2012 at 13:01
Did you just get my comment? It looks like it got lost somehow.
robin claire
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robin claire
November 24th, 2012 at 13:00
Tis the season – “You Veeel Now Be Heppy!!” This is what I feel around this season. That someone [who is that exactly?] is trying to force me to be heppy. I saw this growing up. My parents [mostly dad] was NOT a heppy person – by any means. But then Christmas came around, and it looked to me like he felt he was being forced. The end of this was not a heppy one. He’d find something [it could be anything – or nothing] on Christmas day to get mad at. Then he’d find one of us, and beat the crap out of us – and mostly that “us” – was me. So I have a long history of very many un-heppy, heppy Christmas’s I must overcome. It almost feels like a day of loss to me. I lost my heppyness on Christmas day.
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