How Much Do You Love God?

Jim Gillaspie

How much do you love your family? It sounds like a ridiculous question doesn't it? Our families are very precious to us. A few years ago, I saw a television program about a man who lost a daughter in an automobile accident. The boy who was driving the car was drunk, and he lost control of the vehicle and slammed it into the side of a mountain. The girl was air-lifted to a hospital, but doctors knew there was nothing they could do. There were extensive head injuries and she was brain dead. Then this tragic story took a strange twist. The girl had wanted to be an organ donor, and her father was asked if he wanted to receive her heart! He had been on a waiting list for a heart transplant. His initial reaction was to refuse the heart, but after much family discussion and prayer, he decided to accept it. Today he is alive because his own daughter's heart beats within his chest! His emotions were intense as he told of this difficult decision.

We love our children and want only the best for them. We may talk about their short comings, but nobody else better! There is a special bond between parent and child. My two daughters hold a special place in their daddy's heart.

Don't you suppose that God loved His Son? Follow Jesus into the garden, and watch Him as He prays "Oh my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." (Matt 26:39) Observe the Lamb of God as sweat as great drops of blood fell to the ground (Luke 22:44). How could God not answer His Son's prayer? Didn't He love Him anymore? Didn't He care? Paul supplies the answer in Romans 5:8 "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." How it must have hurt the Father to let His Son die. How His heart must have ached as He silently watched His only Son suffer. How could He do it? He loved you and me enough to want to see us saved from the misery of sin. So He allowed His own Son to suffer for sin. "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." (2 Cor 5:21) He loved us that much!

There is no question about God's love for us. Can we look into that great heart of love and not respond? Could we ever turn our backs on the one who loves us that much? As we think about how much we are endeavoring to walk with Him, lets ask ourselves this important question: "How much do I love God?"

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