Covenant Loving II
Deuteronomy 7: 8-9 (NKJV)
8But because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of [a]bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9“Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments;
There is something quite endearing in how a man loves and how such a man in love can jealously protect his woman. If someone were to come and start fighting the woman, a man in love would not just sit and watch as the event unfolds. Rather, such a man is more likely to get involved before things escalate to protect and save the woman.
In the same manner, does our God jealously protect His people. Because of His great love for you, the Lord will protect and redeem you as He did the Israelites.
Why we do not always benefit from God’s Covenant Loving
Not loving freely as God has loved us
Love is sacrificial. God demonstrated His love to us by sending His son to die for us. Jesus demonstrated His love for us by dying on the cross so that we may obtain salvation from sin. God commands us to love people in the same manner. To love them as we love ourselves. Yet this is not the easiest of tasks since we have grown up in a culture that has trained us to put ourselves first; to love ourselves more than we love others. Lack of understanding has made it quite difficult for us to love God and His people as we ought to.
Wrong motives
Our God is not just concerned with our actions but also with the motive behind these actions. This is why someone may have one of the most overlooked roles in the church and they carry it out faithfully and God will judge them as a “good and faithful servant” while another person may be tasked with carrying out one of the most important roles in the church, yet they end up not pleasing God because of the wrong motive. A story is told of a man who thought that he was too important in Reinhard Bonke’s Ministry and that his absence would mean the collapse of the ministry. His wrong motives, serving not out of love but out of self-importance led to his end, not the end of the ministry as he had envisioned. When it comes to loving and serving God, what drives you? What is the motive behind it?
Covenant Loving as the Engine Driving Your Spiritual Life
Love without the truth is seductive
Imagine this; Jack is quite smitten with a Lisa and he starts getting closer to her, hoping and praying that she will reciprocate his feelings. Unfortunately for Jack, Lisa is already been spoken for or she’s unwilling to date at the moment but she does not reveal this to Jack. Lisa keeps entertaining Jack’s advances, knowing fully well that she cannot commit to him. As a result, Jack ends up investing his emotions, time, and even resources in a place that he should not have been invested in, and the end as we all know it…premium tears.
Seductiveness is not all about showing your body. In fact, that is the least form of seductiveness; the highest form lies in the mind.
Seduction of the mind is the highest form of seduction since we see in our minds first before we can see with our physical eyes.
Such Jack may not even see the signs that Lisa is just playing games. Do you know it’s possible for you to be somewhere and not see what is happening around you? It could be because your mind has taken a journey to another place, maybe you are busy seeing visions that your surroundings do not matter much.
When it comes to covenant loving, understanding is crucial. When your understanding is darkened, you cannot love God and His people as you should.
Ephesians 4: 18 (NKJV)
Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart;
This is why the blind Bartimaeus asked that he may receive his sight.
Luke 18: 40-41 (NKJV)
40So Jesus stood still and commanded him to be brought to Him. And when he had come near, He asked him, 41saying, “What do you want Me to do for you?”
He said, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.”
It is very possible for one to have eyes and not see. This is why Jacob said, “The LORD is in this place and I knew not.”
The good news is that God is able to give us sight so that our spiritual organs are quickened to discern things happening around us.
Truth without love is cruel
As a spiritual being, love is the engine that runs your life. This means that everything you do, you need to do it from the platform of love. When it comes to telling the truth, you need to tell the truth in love. Otherwise, when you remove love from that equation then you are downright cruel.
Words are like bullets
Imagine you are busy enjoying a beautiful meal when someone suddenly comments, “I do not like how you eat!” or I do not like how you do one thing or the other. We have leaned so heavily on the “follow your heart” lifestyle that we communicate truths without love. As a result, we wound others since words are like bullets; they can wound; they can kill. The reason why more men are leaning into homosexuality is because they have been wounded in the ‘right’ relationships that they choose to now make covenants that will leave them protected. Introduce love to the world and see how things change!
As a believer, every spiritual activity you carry out must be done from the platform of love. You should pray, not necessarily because you have a need but because you love God and you love spending time with Him.
God’s Covenant of Love
Psalm 91:14 (NKJV)
Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high because he has known My name.
Our God is a jealous God. He jealously protects those who love Him. He preserves, protects, and draws us with His lovingkindness.
David understood how God loves:
Psalm 103:1-5, 11 (NKJV)
1Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
2Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
3Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
4Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
5Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
11For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;
Benefits of God’s Covenantal Love
Answered prayers
This is the assurance we have, that since God has loved us with everlasting love; since He is our ever-present help in time of need, then we know that whatever we ask Him (according to His will), it is already ours. So when you go to God in prayer, go with this understanding and watch what happens.
Fulfillment
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where everything around you seemed to go haywire? But despite it all, you have inexplainable peace in your heart? Fulfillment is one of the benefits of God’s covenantal love. He knows how to make us fulfilled and be at peace even when storms are raging.
Fulfillment of law
Matthew 22: 37-40 (NKJV)
37Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38This is the first and great commandment. 39And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Love is a fulfillment of the law; not part of it but all the law.
God commands us to love Him with all our heart, soul, and mind. He also commands us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.
As believers, our love for God is seen in how we love others. It is impossible to love God, whom we cannot see if we do not love the people that we can see. There are so many families and other institutions that would fail if there was no love. What is that thing that is failing in your life? Have you introduced the God-kind of love to it?
Love never fails.
God already loves us in His unconditional, matchless, passionate love. The question is, how we do respond to this love?
“Father, let your love be shed abroad in my heart. Help me to love you with all my heart, soul, and mind. Help me to also love those around me. As you have loved me, with all my flaws and weaknesses, help me to love others, whether I think they are deserving or not. I make a commitment this moment dear Lord, to love you with all I am, with all I have.
In the name of Jesus I pray.”
Amen