Who do we love most?

I love Toby Mac’s, Made To Love song!! Love it! Love it! It talks about how we are made to love Him, we were made for Him and made to adore Him and to be loved by Him.

Have you ever really just internalized those lyrics? I was made FOR THE LORD. I was made to love and adore Him!!!! I was made to be loved by Him! Wahoo! If that doesn’t make you excited!?

So, do we live by those words? I can’t say that I do all of the time. Sometimes I forget that I was made for Him and not for myself. Sometimes I catch myself coming to Him with a list of requests before my list of praises and adoration. Sometimes I even forget that I was made to be loved by Him!

Often times I sneak up onto the throne of my life where my Lord should be. I forget why I was made. Self can be so big in our lives that it obscures our view of the one true master. “Have self confidence.” “Take care of your self, you deserve it.” “Listen to your heart.” “You’ve got to take care of number one.” “Treat yourself.” Self help books, etc… The world trumpets self, but self absorption is the last thing we need. The only thing we should be absorbed in is the Lord. He’s the only one who can satisfy our needs and desires. He never leaves us lacking.

When we’re on the throne of our lives, we always want more. We live for the next temporary high, the next sensation. We’re never satisfied. Never complete. Never content. We weren’t made to entertain ourselves or to make ourselves feel good. We were made to worship. Made to love and serve. Selfishness can wreck our lives and the lives of those in contact with us. Sometimes its destruction is subtle and sometimes it’s loud. Without the Holy Spirit’s self- control in our lives, we’re serious prey to Satan, and our lives leave a trail of despair and destruction.

Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
1 Peter 5:8

For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
James 3:16

The Lord, who made us so that He could love us, draws us into relation with Him. His instructions equip us in battle, even battles against ourselves/flesh. When we feel our inner man trying to take the throne, the Lord tells us to turn from self and instead love our brothers and sisters, and to seek after goodness, knowledge, self-control, godliness and kindness.

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
Philippians 2:3

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love.
2 Peter 1:5-7

I really believe we’re fooled when we think that we can make ourselves happy. We can’t. We weren’t made for ourselves, so we can’t fulfill or satisfy ourselves. The devil would like to make us think that we could.

"Lord, I pray that we find delight only in you. I pray that we feel your God made void in our lives and that when we try to fill it with anything other than you that we feel empty and left wanting. I pray for a longing and yearning for you, one that cries out louder than our selfish longings and yearnings. I pray that we would give up anything for you, including our tendencies to try to rule from your throne. Lord, we were made to love you and be loved by you!"

Written by Stephanie