Compelling Love

God is seeking worshipers who give all they are to Him, loving Him with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. Psalm 42 describes the early stages of such a relationship in which “deep calls unto deep” (verse 7). It all begins with a thirst for God:

Psalm 42 (NKJV)
¹ As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?

In John 4, Jesus invites the Samaritan woman at the well to satisfy her spiritual thirst with the living water that He will give:

¹³ Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

Jesus then declares that God seeks true worshipers who will worship Him in spirit and in truth:

²³ “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. ²⁴ God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

In John 7, Jesus speaks again of this living water, referring to the Holy Spirit that he would give:

³⁷ On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. ³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” ³⁹ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

We become the true worshipers that God desires when we surrender all, becoming living sacrifices to Him, as Paul explains in Romans 12:

¹ I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. ² And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Paul teaches that those who live in Christ are new creations:

2 Corinthians 5
¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

God is calling believers into an exchange of life in which Christ lives in us, and we live by faith in Him, as Paul exemplifies:

Galatians 2
²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

In Matthew 16, Jesus teaches that to follow him one must die to one’s own separate agenda, laying down one’s old life for the new life in Him.

Matthew 16
²⁴ Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. ²⁵ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. ²⁶ For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

Three of the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 speak about making room for God:

Matthew 5
³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
For they shall be filled.
⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart,
For they shall see God.

God is looking for a complete change in our priorities, where we seek His kingdom and righteousness first above all else:

Matthew 6
³¹ “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

In Matthew 11, Jesus invites us to exchange our burdens for His easy yoke:

Matthew 11
²⁸ “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

The culmination of giving all to God is seen in John 17, where Jesus prays that the unity, glory and love He shares with the Father would also be in us.

John 17
²⁰ “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; ²¹ that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. ²² And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one: ²³ I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.

²⁴ “Father, I desire that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵ O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. ²⁶ And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

David Krause, dhkrause@neteze.com, https://compellinglove.net/, 1/17/2015