THREE THINGS TO DO IN 2015 WITH ALL YOUR HEART

Author Pastor Odetoyinbo

But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. (1 John 3:17-19 KJV)

God has helped us to cross over to this new year by His mercy and grace. We give all the glory to Him for it pleases Him to spare our lives and to leave us here to continue to represent Him on the face of the earth before our time is up. We all have a limited time to use here and we must be very wise this year in using our time appropriately according to His will and purpose. There are three things that I want us to focus our attention more this new year and I pray that the Holy Spirit will help every each of us in Jesus Name.

(1) LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART
(2) LOVE YOURSELF WITH PASSION
(3) LOVE OTHERS UNCONDITIONALLY

LOVE WITH ACTIONS AND IN TRUTH

Christianity is a way of life that is filled with love for God, oneself and for humanity. Christianity is not a religion but a way of life of special people that has been baptized by the Spirit of love. God is love and all His children are born into His love, the mark of Christianity is the heart of love for God and others. A child of God is somebody that loves unconditionally, this is what God expects from His children. The devil can fake anything but he cannot fake unconditional love, this is where Christianity is different from all other religion.

YOUR LOVE FIRST GOES TO GOD
Your love must first of all goes to God. You must love Him with all your heart, mind and strength, this is what God required from His children. This is the first law or commandment from God. He wants to be in the center of your life. Let’s see what Jesus said about it.

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. (Matthew 22:37 KJV)

He want to be the First and the Last of your life. He wants to be the first person you will speak to when you wake up and the last person you will have conversation with when you want to sleep at night. God wants you to show Him love in practical ways, not loving Him in your heart alone. He wants your actions to back what is in your heart. When you love Him, you will surely obey His commandments and acts on His Word. You will do some things to show that you really love Him. What is dear to Him like evangelism will be dear to you. You will go after those that has not be won by the love of Christ. You will not forsake the assembly of your brethren and you will not hide your love from Him, you will tell Him all the time by praising, worshipping and serving Him . You will not withdraw your money from Him. Your money goes to where your heart is, if you love God, you will spend your money yo support His business. You will read His Word to know what is dear to Him and you will do your best to obey Him.

YOU MUST LOVE YOURSELF BEFORE YOU CAN LOVE OTHERS
Many people on the face of the earth does not love themselves, they are the worst enemy of their soul and if you don’t love yourself you cannot genuinely love any other person. Remember the Word of God says you should love your neighbor as yourself, if you don’t really love yourself, how can you love others? It is impossible to love others when you don’t love yourself . So many people think they love themselves while they are far from it. You can really love yourself if you are not connected to Love Himself. As we said earlier that God is love and love is of God.

He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. (1 John 4:8 KJV)

God is love, for you to love genuinely then you must be connected to the Source of love. If you have not yielded to His love by giving your life to Him, then you are the chief enemy of your soul not the devil. God is the Maker of your life and He is the Owner of it. He created you and had so many things in mind about you before He fashioned you the way He did. If you are going to be truthful to your destiny and purpose, then you must know Him intimately and obeys His instructions about your life. Anything contrary to His will and purpose for your life is hatred towards your own soul. If you refuse to live your life as planned by God, you will definitely suffer for it. Suffering is not palatable and nobody wants to suffer deliberately but loving oneself by discovering God’s purpose and living in them is the greatest love you can show yourself.

Remember you cannot discover your purpose if you have not discovered the Owner and the Maker of the purpose. Loving yourself starts with you discovering God and giving your life to Him. God has not gone anywhere before discovery, sin usually blindfolds people that they wouldn’t see God that is always with them to restore them to their proper position with Him. After giving your life to Him, you begin to search the scriptures and begin to ask God questions about your life. You start to live according to His Words and instructions, you begin to live according to God’s expectations and standard, then you are kind to yourself and really love yourself but if you cut God out from your life and begin to live as you like, indulging in sin and worldly pleasure, you will surely suffer the consequences of your sin in time and in eternity. Anybody that makes another person suffer is wicked and nobody will allow the person he or she truly love to suffer.

When you refuse to obey God’s commandment you are surely preparing yourself for eternal suffering and it means you hate yourself with passion and there is no iota of love inside of you. Let’s see some scriptures to see how people that refuse to connect to God, obey His instructions and really love themselves will suffer.

He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (Revelation 21:7-8 KJV)

Scriptures above made us to know that the overcomers shall inherit all things and they shall be God’s. They are people that are able to overcome hatred for themselves and run to safety by embracing the work Jesus Christ did on the Cross of Calvary . They are the people that made God their hiding place and believe in the work of righteousness our Lord Savior did. They love God and love themselves and make sure that their heaven is secured in Christ Jesus not because of what they are doing but because of what Jesus Christ did for them. They accepted the work of salvation and hold tenaciously to God’s mercy.

On the other hand there are some people that rejected God and the work of salvation He did for them to be saved and be delivered from wrath to come. They are the other group that hate themselves with passion. They love the world and everything that is in the world but they hate their own souls and fail to prepare to heaven and they will eventually end up in lake of fire as the scripture above made us to know. Anybody that loves himself or herself will not end up in lake of fire. He or she will make sure that God forgives his or her sin and work his or her own salvation with trembling and fear.

Loving yourself is about making sure that your life is in line with the Word of God and living your life to please your Maker. If you are not sure you are going to heaven, then the probability that you are going to make it is zero. If you are going to heaven, you will know because the Holy Spirit will bear you witness that you are His child and if truly you are His child, then heaven will be your final home.

The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: (Romans 8:16 KJV)
If you are not convinced that you are His child, then you are not. If you are not convinced that you will make heaven, then you may not make it if you do not change your heart and ways now and begin to love God and yourself by obeying His Word and by pleasing Him. You must start by loving yourself truly, by making sure that you do not suffer damnation by living a careless life, thinking you are enjoying yourself but what you are doing in essence is destroying yourself. The only love gift you can give to yourself is God. When you have God, then you have everything good He has made.

Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s. (1 Corinthians 3:21-23 KJV)

All things are yours if you have Christ Jesus in your life. The scripture above made us to know that all things are yours because you are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s. So the greatest love gift you can give to yourself is Jesus Christ.

YOU MUST LOVE OTHERS WITH ACTION AND IN TRUTH

But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. (1 John 3:17-19 KJV)

Love and giving goes hand in hand. There is no way you will love without giving but you can give without loving and the giving that is acceptable before God is the one that has your heart in it. We said earlier that God is love and love is of God, and pleasing God requires you to love God, yourself and your neighbor. The scripture above made us to know that loving with your tongue is not enough but you must back your love with action and it must be done in truth. It simply means you can love only with tongue or you can even back your love with action but not in truth. It means that you may fake your words and actions but the love that is acceptable before God is the one that is done in deed and in truth.

And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. (Matthew 22:39 KJV)

You must love your neighbor as yourself that is the second great commandment that was given to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. It means you must do your best to see that your family, friends and neighbors loves God and you must teach them to love themselves by working in the purpose of God and you must do your best to help in any area they need your help. Not saying you love them alone but you must back your words with your actions. Visiting the homeless, helping the poor and the sick. Doing your best to those that cannot help themselves .

LOVE OTHERS UNCONDITIONALLY
Loving others even yourself unconditionally is the hardest thing to do without the Holy Spirit. You cannot love unconditionally without His help and without obedience to the Word of God. I will implore every one of us to make the Word of God and the Holy Sprit their best friends this new year and it will be very easy to love in deed and in truth as God required of us. Let’s put ourselves in the hands of God and let it go and it shall be well with us in this new year in Jesus Name.

Overcomers Faith Ministries