Great Quote

Today one of our elders started us off on a systematic study through the book of Acts. We have just finished the Gospel of Luke and I believe that our goal is to eventually get through Romans. Anyhow, he said something that just stuck in my brain all day. He said that, "If we loved God more we wouldn't cheat on Him so much." I loved it. It is so true. So all day I have thought about how I can grow my love for God. I thought about my relationship with my husband, to whom I have vowed lifetime faithfulness, and what it is I do to ensure my fidelity to him. I realized that these same components translate into my relationship with God. Here are some of my thoughts:
Time is a vital element in any growing relationship. I must spend time with God if my relationship is to remain strong and continue to grow. If Buddy and I never spoke again I wouldn't stop being his wife, but it sure would put our relationship to the test, and it could pose a threat to our fidelity to each other in the face of temptation. Likewise to nurture our love for God we must spend time in communication with Him, through the reading of the Scripture and in prayer and meditation. This is why True Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship...a living breathing, growing, daily walk with the One who created us for relationship.
What Have You Done For Me Lately? I'm going to show my age here! I remember that song by Janet Jackson,
"Well what' sup with this guy? Do you really like him that much?
Yes, honey, I looove him. He is fiiine, he does a lot of nice things for me.
I know he use to do nice stuff for you, but what has he done for you lately? "
It is funny but I can ask that question even about my relationship with God. What has He done for me lately? WOW...so much!!! I remember another song like that (different genre) "Count your blessings name them one by one. Count your blessings see what God has done." COUNT THEM! NAME THEM! BE GRATEFUL AND THEN THANK HIM! You will watch your love for Him skyrocket when you work on being grateful. If you have trouble getting started I suggest you start simple, like the things that you can't live without...food, water, air. Guess what? That was Him! Thank God.
Surrender to His Love. My husband and I have been mutually surrendered to each other for 16 years. I yield to him, he yields to me...we both yield to God. It works.
In the Bible it says that, "we love God, because He first loved us."
Knowing His love makes me love Him more. Knowing the price He paid (His Son) to make me His, how He loved me even when I was His enemy, how He is faithful in spite of my unfaithfulness, how He is God and I am not, how there is nothing I can give Him that He didn't give me first, how He looked on me with great love, picked me up, cleaned me off and put His Spirit in me, how could I not love Him?

So these are my thoughts on this Lord's Day and my practical application of God's Word in my life. Like my husband always says, " If we are just going to come and listen to God's Word, but do nothing to apply it to our lives, we might as well have just gone down to the IHOP for pancakes.
OR James1:21-25 "Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. "