LOVE'S MOTIVE

The other week, I got bit by a bug. I’ll call it the love bug. I was so intent on showering my wife with love that I got this hare-brained idea (love will often cause those kinds of ideas).

You see, Tricia had been talking for a while about how she could get more countertop space in the kitchen. We entertain a lot and we are scrunched for room when it comes to spreading the foot out. Once upon a time she had an idea of getting a smaller microwave and building a shelf above the oven to slide the microwave onto. This would free up a good chunk of counter space which I knew in turn would make Tricia happy and feel loved.

So, on a Friday afternoon I told Tricia I had some errands to run, though I wouldn’t tell her what errands those were. I left the house, bought a microwave and cut a shelf to the measurements needed. I put the shelf up, leveled it out, drilled it in, sanded it, primed it, and painted it. I then quickly placed the microwave into its new resting place and went to get Tricia.

She was surprised. Shocked in fact that I went to all that trouble and even remembered what it was that she had requested. Her face, and her heart, were beaming with gratitude and my heart? Oh, I was oozing with love for the one who chose to spend her life with the likes of me. I didn’t do the shelf because I thought I should, but because I wanted to express my love to my wife, pure and simple.

It got me to thinking about all that God does for me and all that I do for Him. Is my motivation for all that I do for God love? Making God smile? Warming His heart? Or is it a false sense of religiosity that is motivated by a sense of obligation and duty? Is it a relationship based on love, or relationship of duty and obligation full of “shoulds” and “oughts” simply because “it’s the right thing to do.”

I wrote the following passage down from a book I’m reading, “If Christ is in you, then the Christian life is not about striving to be something you are not (the shoulds and oughts). It is about becoming what you already are.” And what is that? A child of God (I John 3: 1). The object of His affection (I John 4: 7-10). A new creation (2 Corinthians 5: 17). Saved (Ephesians 2: 4-8). Redeemed (I Peter 1: 17-19) His beloved (Deut. 33: 12), His betrothed bride (Hosea 2: 19-23).

Our relationship with God must be driven by the fact that He loves us and His greatest desire is that we would love Him. Not because it’s the right thing to do, but because when we realize how amazing and pure is His love towards us, loving Him is the only thing we can do.

May you, this week, be caught up in the beauty of the Creator and His amazing, reckless, passionate, never-ending, unfailing, all encompassing love for you! May His love be all you can see – healing you, building you up, dressing your wounds, transforming you into the person you truly already are.