Sometimes OC is just too much. Today he seems to be saying that we are not only to abandon everything for Jesus, but we are to do so purely out of our devotion to Him. We are called to love Jesus Christ purely for Himself not for anything we can get or have gotten from Him. <\/span><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

“If we only give up something to God because we want more back, there is nothing of the Holy Spirit in our abandonment; it is miserable commercial self-interest. That we gain heaven, that we are delivered from sin, that we are made useful to God – these things never enter as considerations into real abandonment, which is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.”<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

How can I possibly do that? How can I forget what the Lord has done and continues to do for me? How can I love Him purely for who He is without a remnant of memory of past graces and an assurance of future blessings? It just doesn’t seem possible.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

\nOC seems to be saying that we need to have an Agape love for the Lord. Agape is unconditional love. Love for another without expectation of any return or gratitude for any past favor. That is impossible for man on his own. <\/span><\/span>I have experienced that love so I know it is possible. <\/span><\/span>When it occurs it is purely a gift from God.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

When we love like God loves, it’s because God has gifted us with such love. So it must be with the love of God. If we are to love God unconditionally, we can only do so if God equips and empowers us to do it. Even the pure love of <\/i>God is a gift from <\/i>God. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Lord, teach us to love like You love, not just each other, which is miraculous enough, but teach us to return the love to You that You have given to us… completely and unconditionally.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
When we can love like that we will always,<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Be blessed.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
Nick<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sometimes OC is just too much. Today he seems to be saying that we are not only to abandon everything for Jesus, but we are to do so purely out of our devotion to Him. We are called to love Jesus Christ purely for Himself not for anything we can get or have gotten from Him. “If we only give up something to God because we want more back, there is nothing of the Holy Spirit in our abandonment; it is miserable commercial self-interest. That we gain heaven, that we are delivered from sin, that we are made useful to God – these things never enter as considerations into real abandonment, which is a personal sovereign preference for Jesus Christ Himself.” How can I possibly do that? How can I forget what the Lord has done and continues to do for me? How can I love Him purely for who He is without a remnant of memory of past graces and an assurance of future blessings? It just doesn’t seem possible. OC seems to be saying that we need to have an Agape love for the Lord. Agape is unconditional love. Love for another without expectation of any return […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nicksigur.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}