Love Your God

Bro. John Dee Thompson

When I met my wife Stephanie, I hadn’t met anyone as nice. I have said that she’s the reason I know God, but that isn’t all together true. Three reason I know God is because I read the Bible. I believe that’s why the Bible was written, so we could know God. My wife softened my heart so I could understand love, so I could understand God’s love.

“I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.” Psalm 18:1

The pattern of David’s life was to honor and obey God. David’s intent in Psalm 18 was to humble himself before God and show the love he had for Him. Through its many pages the book of Psalms encourages us to praise God for who He is and what He has done by pointing out His greatness and confirming His faithfulness to us in times of trouble.

Let us know God, so we can love God.

David does not say God’s way is easy. David’s years of evading Saul and his men brought hardship and conflict with other enemies, but he testifies to the truth that whatever threats chased him, there was always a greater pursuer afoot: goodness and mercy.

Though he had been hounded by those who tried to harm him, he remained confident that this divine love would follow him everywhere. Perhaps David knew that the strength he had in God was the strength of divine love chasing him down. It isn’t a passing fancy or superficial emotion, but a profound and unshakeable commitment that seeks the best for us.

David was a man after God’s own heart and intended to let Him know this.

“The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.” Psalm 18:2

The Lord empowers and protects each one of His children. he defends and delivers. He is our place of shelter and our seat of safety. David proved that God is faithful and He will not let us be tried beyond our ability to endure. He will always provide a way for us to escape, so that we can endure life’s problems and pains.

“I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.” Psalm 18:3

David called upon the Lord by faith. He trusted in God to intervene in the affairs of man. he knew what God would do, or what He could be trusted to do by the way He expressed Himself through His name. His good name.

When your car breaks down, you don’t take it to the bank teller; you take it to a mechanic- someone you know and trust to fix the problem. David took his problems to God because he knew he could not fix them himself.

“The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid. The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.” Psalm 18:4-5

David was often scared. He saw the snares that were laid for him, and his knee-jerk reaction was anxious fear of death.

This is a normal reaction to what he was facing and we have all experienced something similiar. This will cause a person to go through a process called “gathering your thoughts.” You pull yourself together and remind yourself that there is no terror in love.

Regardless of what was happening, David trusted in God’s love. Trusting God is a refusal to give in to the fear that will drive us away from God.

Stop running and start fighting.

Turn and fight.

God is there if you need Him- and you will need Him. When fear tries to separate you from the love of God, turn and fight like you are the third monkey on the ramp to Noah’s Ark... and it’s starting to rain.

The devil is a skinny man. It doesn’t take much room for him to get between you and God. Stay close.

Everything is a part of God’s perfect plan. If we believe He is perfect then we must believe everything He says, sees, touches, does, and allows to happen is also perfect, even if we don’t understand it.

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:18

You are a part of the greatest love story ever told. Your response?

“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