Week 3 Day 5: Who To Listen To

"Anyone who belongs to God listens gladly to the words of God. But you don’t listen because you don’t belong to God.” John 8:47 NLT

God loves us so much that He gave us the choice of who to listen to. We can choose to belong with Him or not. He didn’t make us robots to simply do His work. He created us to be in relationship with Him, He wants us to be with Him because we want to, not because we have to. He will not make us listen to Him, even when our choices are unhealthy. We blame Him when things go wrong but when you act contrary to the nature of the One who created the universe, you act contrary to how the universe works. It’s like spitting into the wind and getting mad at God because we end up with spit on our face. We only create heartache by trying to make life the way we want it instead of working along side God to create life the way He created it to be.

In order to know who we are listening to we must understand the nature of the voices we hear. There is a huge difference between God’s love and the world's love. God's love is always directed outward toward others. The roots of worldly Love are directed inward toward ourselves. God's love is utterly unselfish, so His kind of love goes against our natural inclinations. It is impossible to have truly unselfish love without God. He helps us set aside our own natural desires so that we can love and not expect anything in return. 

The more we become like Christ, the more love we will show to everyone, not just those we already like or love; but those we disagree with, those we dislike...even those who have hurt us or hurt those we hold dearly. By leaning on God’s love we will be kind, patient and we will not give up loving because His love endures through every circumstance. 

God’s love is not necessarily emotional, warm and fuzzy. God’s love is an action, it’s doing what’s right even when no one is looking. It’s doing what’s good even when every fiber in our being doesn’t want to do it. When we are jealous, boastful, proud, rude, irritable, demand our own way, or keep record of wrongs, we are caught up in the lust of this world, not in the love of God.

This is what Jesus means when He says we need to lay down our lives and take up the cross in order to find life. Letting go of what the world calls love frees us from negative thought patterns and destructive habits. Picking up our cross, motivated by His love to act, is how we live out the abundant life. He guides us with His truth, He shatters the thought patterns of the world and empowers us to act on the healthy thought patterns He reveals to us. 

Do you see your thoughts as a choice? What are some actions you can take to start choosing healthy thoughts?

Meditate on John 8:47 today