Are You In Love With Jesus Or Are You Just Friends?
Hungry - Day 3
"...love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength." Mark 12:30.
Are you in love with Jesus or are you just friends? Here are three questions to help you determine your answer:
1. Is Jesus the first person you want to tell when something great happens?
2. Is Jesus your first and last thought of the day?
3. If you could spend a day with anyone, would you spend it with Jesus?
You might be thinking this is intense but I want you to imagine being in love with someone and then answer the questions again from that perspective.
1. Is the person you love, the first one you call to talk to?
2. Is the person you love your first thought when you wake up?
3. If you could choose anyone to spend the day with, would it be your love?
One of the ways you know you are in love with someone is when you feel incomplete when you are not with them. Your thoughts are consumed by them and you count the seconds until you can be together again. You actually feel empty when you spend too much time away from them. It's no different with Jesus! I call that love for him "Hunger."
Unfortunately, we are told we are supposed to be in love with Jesus, but merely accepting his gift of salvation doesn't mean that we automatically love him. We've only just met. The cross is the beginning of our relationship, not the end.
Many of us confuse church attendance for being in love; we try to satisfy our need for him with the knowledge of him, never realizing there is a huge difference. In fact, anything less than Jesus himself leaves us still feeling empty no matter how great our church is. We then search for substitutes to try to satisfy that need.
The problem is that this world is full of substitutions. We look for love in all the wrong places investing in relationships that not only can't replace the love of Christ, but often removes them from it. I know all they want is to find the love their soul craves, but anything outside of Jesus literally cheats them from the freedom found in the love of Christ when it is established first.
Challenge: Ask yourself if you are really in love with Jesus or if you just say you are? If so, do your actions reflect the level of love you claim? Is Jesus the answer to all of the questions above? If not, why not?
- Deanna
