To Love God Above All

God lives and works today. Today's program is about loving God above all other things. This immediately presents us with the question, who or what is the love of our hearts? Perhaps our family, house, property, wealth, work, health, our honor? We could go on endlessly with our list.

However, Jesus' words were clear when he said, You cannot serve God and mammon. Indeed, no commandment is so violated as the first, to love God above all else. Whenever the love for something else gains first place in our hearts, it kills our love for Jesus.

This does not mean that we are not to love people and things or everything that God has made. However, he must have the first love and the first place in our hearts. This is often a painful process, but in the end we gain the greatest treasure in heaven and earth, a deeper relationship and union with God himself.

A friend shared with us what he experienced when he started to give the Lord first place in his heart. He wrote, In my teens I was bound very much to a person. This caused a great deal of anxiety and worry for my family.

At first I imagined this friendship would bring new vigor into my life as a disciple of Christ. However, I soon sensed that this friendship was not in God's will. Although it was exceedingly difficult for me at first, I struggled so that I might be freed from this person.

After I wrote a clear letter severing all relations, I decided as an outward sign to tear up all the photos which lay in my desk. Underneath the photos I was amazed to discover a piece of paper with a quotation from Bernier de Louvigny on it. To this very day I can repeat the words by heart, for they made such an impression on me at that time.

You can only be filled with the fullness of God when you're empty of all people and things. That was God's answer of grace in response to my step of obedience. Years later when the Lord called me to full-time Christian service, I remembered this word again, and I saw that through this word God had already shown me his wonderful plan for my life, before I could even understand or imagine it.

Now maybe you're not bound to a person, but it could very well be that something else has taken up all of your thoughts, all your wishes and dreams, so that God doesn't have much room in your life. God is waiting for you, his child, to love him above all else. The love of his children is his joy, but you will only be a joy to him to the extent that you love him above everything else.

Therefore commit to him all the things to which you are attached, whether it be people, material goods, or ideals. Out of love, sacrifice to him whatever your heart clings to. Then you'll bring joy to his heart, and God's joy will make you rich and happy too, more than you've ever dreamed.

So all that I have, I will give him. I'll sacrifice all I hold dear. My whole life to Jesus belonging.

My heart seeks my love to reveal. You have been listening to a program written by Basilea Schlink of the Little Land of Canaan. To learn more about how God lives and works today, visit us at our website, www.canaan.org. If you contact us, we would be happy to send you a free inspirational booklet.

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