Living and Loving Authentically

I would like to just simplify our lives for a moment. One reason is that I need a good reminder of it...another reason is maybe you do too. I think we make it much more difficult and stressful than it's supposed to be. It's easy to wake up one morning and find that your life in God has diminished...it's not just the same as it was. You didn't mean to. It just happened. Life got busy...maybe even good things are happening that seems to be taking up your time and energy and that hunger for God isn't there like it once was.
It's really amazing that we can simplify our lives down to two important things. In these two things which God says are most important - we find that it does not limit our lives - it actually energizes it because the most important things are centered around the most wonderful thing our hearts can ever experience on the earth. That thing is LOVE. Do we realize our relationship with God is and should be centered around love? I know many times mine is not. It may be centered on rules - trying to do the right thing. Or fear of not measuring up. But God's will for both you and I is that our hearts would be full of love for both God and others around us. He wants a sincere heart of love - one that is real, not just someone that can act the part. I've acted it plenty of times and I'd much rather be authentic.
So. The two most important things God says is to (1)Love God with all your heart and (2) Love others. That is so simple. It's around these two things that we should build our lives. Think about it - God doesn't give us a rule to live by, like "don't do ___________ and don't do _______________." He gave us an opportunity to experience the most incredible thing a heart on earth can experience, and that is love. Why did he choose this? Becuase that is who He is. To go even farther, in Corinthians, it says that we can be all of the imporatnt things as a christian, like having spiritual gifts, etc -- but if we dont have love we are a clanging symbol - just a bunch of noise. Has anyone but me felt like you're living a life of just a bunch of noise? Nothing of real depth or authenticity. You're doing the right things - going through the chrisitan motions, but it's shallow and it's become an outward motion, not so much something that is alive and real on the inside of you. I refuse to live like this, although I have plenty of times.
What does it take to not live like this? Well, quite simply, if love is God and comes from God, the only way we can become lovers of God and others is to dive into who God really is. The more we know about God, the more we will become like Him. I want to address the ugly thing in our Bible belt culture called the religious spirit. This is the most severe way we can live unauthentically. It's when we say somethign out of our mouths and it does not measure up in our lives. Now, we won't ever measure up to perfection, but God sees our heart - if it's rebelious and religious, or teachable in the midst of our struggles. A religious spirit easily looks and speaks down to others and doesn't realize his/her own struggles and weaknesses. They live an outward life, but inwardly they are evil and hypocritical. They look and act like a strong christian, but there is a whole hidden part on the inside of them. A good way to tell if someone is like this is how they treat others - if they are hard on others are merciful. This is huge in our culture. So how can we defend ourselves from becomign like this? We have to have an inward christian life - we have to work on our hearts - the place that true life flows from - the place we find our real selves. It's not in our actions and words, it's in the deep places of our hearts where we see who we really are. I dare you to do something that is dangerous. Be honest with yourself. What is in your heart? I know I am going through a season where God is stripping me - showing me all kinds of things that I didn't realize was inside of me. Why? Because I've asked Him to make me authentic - that my inner life and outer life would be the same - that I wouldn't be hipocritical, but a person of integrity. That's a dangerous thing to ask for because God will begin to show you all of the shadows in your heart that you don't relize are there. You'll begin to own the fact that you are prideful, bitter, unforgiving, hipocritical, a gossip, etc etc. It's a good thing to own it because until you do, you'll be blinded by your sin and God can't deal with something if you don't believe it's really in you. So, I'm opening my heart up and saying to God that I dont want to deny anything. As much as it is shocking and it hurts, I want to deal with those hidden sins and those things that are so ugly that I seem to push them away - or I just didn't realize they were there. God wants to deal with them because He wants us to be authentic - He wants us to love Him sincerely and love others sincerely.
One thing I am realizing about myself is how incredibally selfish I am. I didn't realzie this before, but God seems to be shining his light on me and revealing it. I'm sure it's always been there, but it's been hidden to me. It's a part of our human nature to be selfish, it can even look normal and have some sense about it. Look at Jesus' life. Peter asked Jesus to not go through the suffering that was before Him. Jesus' response was, "Get behind me satan." Peter was asking Jesus to not give himself for others - to save his life and not lose it. Jesus saw this as something that came from satan. Jesus gave His life - He did not keep anything for himself. This was the greatest act of love we will ever encounter. Sometimes selfishness can be human wisdom - we have got to be discerning and obediant to the path God has for us, even if it seems hard and unfair. May we not get caught up in our culture's view of life and miss out on the cross God has for us to walk under. Selfishness is when we want to fill our needs, when life is centered around fulfilling our wants and desires. Jesus did anything but this. It was the heart of heaven for Him to die. Some consider this harsh. Sometimes we think God is asking way too much of us - that He is even being harsh - but we dont see what he sees - we dont see the big picture. He wants to strip everthing from us - the things our culture has placed on us that we call "truth" may not be truth - if we realy want the heart of heaven, we better be ready to be different and expect others to not understand. What is he asking of you? Don't let your heart be offended. He is doing a work in you that, when it's completed, you will be rooted and grounded in His love and not in what our culture says life should be lived like. Walk into it - trust Him that He knows what is best for you. It hurts, but it is sooo good! Our culture says we are most important - it's about I, I, and I. Jesus says whoever saves His life will lose it and whoever loses His life for His sake will find it. May be we willing to lose our lives - to let go of what everyone says is important and find our lives in God.
It is my goal in life to be a better lover of God and a better lover of people. The past week I have relized I need to do some major changes in my schedule as far as how much time I am spending with the Lord. My time with Him has deminished some, and I refuse to live life not being sincere. For me, I am more sincere when I have spent time with the Lord and my heart is full of love for Him. It just automatically overflows into other people without me trying. Life is much better that way. I dont like living where I have to muster up niceness to the point that it is not real and sincere. I dont want to live that way.
So if you're like me, I encourage you to renew your time with the Lord. Let your goal in life to be to become a lover, not to make money or to be a mom, wife, husband, etc. When we put God first, all of the other things will come into alignment. Life will be much easier because we are living out of the grace He has called us to walk in every day. It does take a willingness to spend time with Him. Are we willing to go the extra mile to live our lives in God to the fullest? I say yes!