Give Yourself to Love the Lord

Give yourself to love the Lord. No other way is so prevailing, and no other way is so safe, so rich, and so full of enjoyment. Just love Him. Do not care for anything else. Teachings, doctrines, gifts, and power do not mean much. We must continually tell the Lord, "Lord, keep me in Your love! Attract me with Yourself! Keep me all the time in Your loving presence!" If we will pray in this way, we will see what love we will have toward the Lord and what kind of life we will live. We will simply live by the Lord Himself. As long as we love Him from the deepest part of our being, everything will be all right. If we need wisdom, He will be the wisdom to us. If we need power, He will be the power. If we need the proper and adequate knowledge, He will even be that to us. Whatever we need, He is. Do not try to get anything else; just look to Him that He would reveal His love to you. Song of Songs 1:4 says, "Draw me, we will run after thee." We must ask the Lord to draw us, and then others will run after Him with us. To take Him as our life, we must love Him in such a way.

In Revelation 2 the degradation of the church began with the loss of the first love toward the Lord Jesus. The church in Ephesus had many good works and was even strong in faith, but the Lord rebuked her by saying, "I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love." They had lost the fresh and best love toward the Lord. This started the degradation of the churches. When we lose our love for the Lord, we start to backslide. We must go to the Lord and make a deal with Him: "Lord, be merciful to me! I do not need anything or anyone else but Your loving Self. Simply show me Yourself! Draw me that we may run after You. O Lord, show me Your love that I might be constrained by Your love! I do not want to do anything for You, Lord. I just want to love You. I just want to take You as my Person. I want Your personality as my personality, Your will as my will, Your desires as my desires. I want Your everything as my everything."

Thus, we see that it is not simply a matter of believing, but also a matter of loving. We must learn to love the Lord Jesus. If we would have such a burning love toward the Lord Jesus, we will enjoy all that He is. Therefore, I do not encourage you to seek anything else. Go to the Lord and ask Him to draw you that you may run after Him. You must realize that the "zoe-life" is such a loving, wonderful Person and that love is the way to deal with Him.