2021/2022 OPERATION 18-18 DAY 4B (LOVE GOD)

My greatest desire for everyone participating in this programme is that we have a perfect heart that loves God absolutely, unconditionally and boundlessly. Once we can get to that dimension, we are made. It sounds easy but it is one of the most difficult things to accomplish today.

Everyone knows that God is love, no doubt, but the point is – do you really love God?  The question of God’s love for man is not in doubt but does man really reciprocate appropriately to God’s love? Everything you do in God’s kingdom must come from a pure and perfect heart otherwise it would amount to hay, wood or stubble. The Bible says everyone’s work will be weighed in the balance; our work will pass through the crucibles of fire. That is how God designed it in order to determine the nature of our love. It is quite critical.

A lot of theologians believe that the first sin was that of abdication of responsibility but I am of the opinion (and this is backed by the scripture), that the first sin was actually misplacement of value. In other words, the first sin was ingratitude. A perfect God created a perfect environment and a perfect man whom he elevated. Gen. 1:26^A, “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”.

Man was supposed to be the apogee of creation but what happened? God gave man lord tenancy over all his creation with only one command. Unfortunately, man could not keep this law because he allowed a stranger to come in. This stranger beguiled, deceived, corrupted, defiled, demoted, and exposed the nakedness of man. Every tragedy in life is as a result of this. Whenever we come into the presence of God we must keep in view the full knowledge of where we are coming from. God could have wiped away the human race and do a re-creation. That was an option. However, even in judgment, God reserved mercy. To him be all the glory.

When God gave judgment on the serpent that was responsible for the fall, he made allusion to the cross that was to come thousands of years later. He made reference to the seed of the woman that will bruise the head of the serpent. This was the first messianic prophecy as stated in Gen. 3:15, “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”

In John 3:16, the deal was sealed. Then on the cross, it was fulfilled. The seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, on that day bruised the head of Leviathan. He destroyed the seven heads of Leviathan which the devil was using to fight man. He did it for you and for I. That is why we need to fall in love with him. Magnify Jesus Christ.

Pray –

Heavenly Father, I bless and magnify your name for giving us you Son Jesus Christ through whom we have eternal life. Grant me the grace never to take your love for granted, but to live the rest of my life loving you so much that the idea of substituting that love for anything else does not remotely exist in Jesus’ name. Amen

TO BE CONTINUED………