More Like Falling in Love
Remember how you were when you fell in love with your future wife? Remember how you couldn’t get her off of your mind? You couldn’t stop thinking about the next time you would talk to her, see her, share those moments together that always seemed to be all too short no matter how long you were together. While it may not have been your intention at all to fall in love, that is exactly what was happening, you were falling in love. My hope for you is that has been a lasting and growing experience with that someone special that God gave you as a gift to be your wife. Have you ever taken time to consider the type of relationship Jesus desires to have with you? I believe He wants it to be just like falling in love more than anything else. You see when we are falling in love our focus and attention is consumed by the one we are falling in love with. For so many men their relationship with the Lord is based on following rules, saying the right words, meeting God’s obligations, and religious rituals, yet He desires so much more. Jason Gray and Jason Ingram nailed my testimony in the lyrics of their song that says:
Give me rules; I will break them
Give me lines; I will cross them
I need more than a truth to believe
I need a truth that lives, moves, and breathes
To sweep me off my feet
It ought to be
More like falling in love; Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart; Than giving my allegiance
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now
It’s like I’m falling, oh
It’s like I’m falling in love
Give me words; I’ll misuse them
Obligations; I’ll misplace them
‘Cause all religion ever made of me
Was just a sinner with a stone tied to my feet
It never set me free
It’s gotta be
(CHORUS)
…It’s like I’m falling in love, love, love
Deeper and deeper
It was love that made
Me a believer
In more than a name, a faith, a creed
Falling in love with Jesus brought the change in me
God tells us “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”[1] Mammon is a Greek word that is translated to mean “money,” “riches,” “property,” “worldly goods,” or “profit.”[2] OUCH, if you’re like me you probably wish I had left that as just “mammon” and we could have all lived on in ignorance thinking there is no way that verse could apply to me. Look around you and you see men serving “mammon” while espousing their relationship with the Lord. Too many men have fallen in love with “mammon” and are only fooling themselves about their relationship with our Heavenly Father, His son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit! I can assure you they are not fooling God.
When Jesus was asked what was the great commandment He replied “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”[3] As I have said many times, God wants us to devote everything, heart, mind, and soul when it comes to our relationship with Him. Much like our earlier example of falling in love where we devoted most of our time, energy, thought and everything else we had to developing that relationship, we must exercise that same level of commitment, if not more, in developing our relationship with our Lord and Savior. Just think of the change that could occur in your trust, faith, and daily spiritual walk in the Lord if you would just approach it as more like “falling in love!”
John tells us “He who believes in Him (Jesus) is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”[4] God’s men must recognize that there is great darkness around us and many men love the darkness because it protects them from being exposed for their deceit and desires of self fulfillment. Our opportunity is to demonstrate by our daily lives the incredible joy and peace that can only come from falling in love with the one and only Savior that reconnects us to our Heavenly Father.
Scripture tells us on one of the occasions that Jesus appeared after His resurrection he had breakfast with His disciples and He posed some questions to Peter. “Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me more than these?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ He said to him, ‘Feed My lambs.’ He said to him again a second time, ‘Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?’ He said to Him, ‘Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.’ He said to him, ‘Tend My sheep.’ He said to him the third time, ‘Simon, sonof Jonah, do you love Me?’ Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, ‘Do you love Me?’ And he said to Him, ‘Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed My sheep.”[5] If we have truly fallen in love with the One who saved us then we must feed His lambs, tend and feed His sheep. Just as with any love relationship, the most powerful demonstration of our love comes from our thoughts, actions, and deeds. It’s time for God’s men to get busy demonstrating that a true relationship with Jesus is more like falling in love than the deception the enemy puts before them. Grasp the reality that when we develop a relationship with the Lord that is based on falling in love with Him, it will be a relationship that will survive the challenges and obstacles life throws its way!