Bible Studies

---

LESSON 3

LOVING GOD WHOLEHEARTEDLY

God’s command is that we love Him with ALL our hearts and ALL our strength and ALL our souls and ALL our minds and ALL OTHERS as we love ourselves. He is a jealous God because He created us and, therefore, we belong to Him. We are His Bride - whom He loves passionately!

SHARE THE REASONS WHY YOU THINK WE FAIL SO OFTEN IN LOVING GOD WHOLEHEARTEDLY, NO MATTER HOW HARD WE TRY.

WHAT DO YOU THINK THE SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM IS?

Sometimes we Christians react to God in the same way as we do to our wives or husbands, and go the way of the world by withdrawing, having an affair or considering divorce. We are all quite capable of doing so, just as the Israelites did! It is only by remaining in Christ that we have access to the truth, wisdom and power of God, and it is only by His grace that we are kept to the very end.

Withdrawal – ‘To pull back or draw back, to retract our total commitment, to become mentally detached’.
At one time or another most of us have been guilty of this, especially when we experience God’s difficult teachings, chastising or testing. We seldom go so far as to walk away from God but often take the ‘easy’ way out, so to speak. We continue attending church and perhaps other fellowship meetings. Our consciences are pricking and we feel miserable, but none of us enjoy this uneasy state of mind so we are sometimes inclined to justify our lack of repentance, diminishing our sin in our own eyes so that we don’t have to be confronted by the truth. If we allow this to continue for too long, our consciences become seared and Satan finds fertile minds to work on. The next step could be ………

An affair – ‘transferring our affection to another, committing adultery’.
If we try to walk with God in our own strength, without repenting from doing so - we will fail. The awareness of our failure may bring us to a point where we begin looking for an ‘easier’ way of living, without actually leaving the faith. As previously mentioned, we normally start by withdrawing from God to some extent and then go on to silently find fault with certain of His ‘difficult’ ways and teachings. We may add to, or take things away from His Word. The call of the world grows stronger if we are not brought to repentance, as Satan is able to more easily influence minds that are not centred on Christ.
Additions to the Word could include parts from other religions and always our own so-called wisdom (as opposed to wisdom given us by God). We may mentally ignore (subtract) the parts of the Bible that don’t appeal to us and adjust God’s truth to our way of thinking, reluctant to accept the Word as it is and in its entirety. If we allow ourselves to continue without repentance, it always reaps the fruits of misery, lack of joy and peace and can lead to thoughts of………

Divorce – ‘the dissolution of a marriage - to dissolve a union’.
If we wander too far from the Truth, divorce becomes increasingly attractive. The ways of God are no longer revered and we then allow ourselves to be further seduced and deceived by Satan ……… but incredibly, Christ is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He lives to intercede for us and will not allow any true believer to be lost. Sooner or later God will cause something in our lives that jerks us back from the chasm. In light of this, it should be obvious why early repentance is so necessary. We will avoid the chastening of our loving Father. Countless blessings and much growth may be lost if we choose to do things in our way.

· 2 Kings 17;14,15 and 20 – But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their fathers, who did not trust in the LORD their God. They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their fathers and the warnings he had given them. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the LORD had ordered them, “Do not do as they do,” and they did the things the LORD had forbidden them to do. ……… Therefore the LORD rejected all the people of Israel; he afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until he thrust them from his presence.

READ AND HONESTLY DISCUSS EACH OF THE FOLLOWING PASSAGES IN RELATION TO YOUR OWN PERSONAL WALK WITH GOD:
· Deut. 8:10-14 – When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
· James 1:22-25 – Do not merely listen to the word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it – he will be blessed in what he does.
· Rev. 3:14-22 – To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.” But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
· Heb. 3:7-15 – So, as the Spirit says: “Today if you hear my voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’ So I declared an oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’ See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first.
· Jer. 18:1,6 – This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me: “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.”
· Jer. 3:19–21 – “How gladly would I treat you like sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation. I thought you would call me ‘Father’ and not turn away from following me. But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you have been unfaithful to me, O house of Israel,” declares the Lord. A cry is heard on the barren heights, the weeping and pleading of the people of Israel, because they have perverted their ways and have forgotten the Lord their God. “Return, faithless people; and I will cure you of backsliding.”

Do not become despondent or hopeless if you have failed God. We all do so at one time or another. Instead, decide to accept His solution from now on, by repenting and turning your heart back to Him, each time you fail:

· Hebrews 4:15-16 – For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin. Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

A wrong or limited first commitment is not final – a true commitment can always take place, as God is ready and willing to forgive the repentant heart.

As you will learn in the next lesson, God’s love for us is so great that He has supplied a wonderful provision to make us perfect in our weakness. He invites us into a loving relationship with him.

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE