Learning To Love

“And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.” (Zec 13:9 AV)

There is no avoiding it.  Life with God is all about transformation.  It is all about fixing us.  It is all about becoming more and more what the LORD intended for us to be.  This often takes difficult circumstances of life.  It takes correction.  It takes steps of faith.  It takes persecution.  It takes some uncomfortable situations that we might continue to go through the transformation process.  But, in the end, God is our God and we are His children.  He cannot love us any more then He does.  His love is infinite. We, on the other hand, can always love Him more.  This takes change.  Hard change.  Necessary change.

Not that we are dogs, but the analogy runs true.  I miss my black lab.  We got Kimber from the shelter.  He was skittish about everything.  He barked and ran from me when I would dress in a suit.  He would notice if anything, and I mean anything, was different in the house. He would bark at it and hide.  If a chair was pulled out from the dining room table, he would bark and hide.  If a package came and we set it on the kitchen table, he would notice it, bark and hide.  However, over time and training, Kimber learned to trust me.  It took gentle training.  It took lots and lots of leash training.  It took walks.  It took affirmation.  It took situations where he was confronted with difficult choices.  One such problem as linoleum flooring.  He would not walk on it.  He would not go up a set of stairs.  Since his house was in the down-stairs apartment, I had to pull him by the leash until he learned it was no big deal.  What this accomplishes was a relationship of trust and admiration.  Kimber, in time, learned to trust me and admire my leadership.  In order to do this, he had to change his nature.  He had to change what he naturally was to what I wanted him to be.  As a result, he became a much more content and happier dog.

Again, we are not dogs. But the truth remains the same.  For us to love the LORD more and more, we have to be changed.  This is difficult.  But necessary.  As we yield to the hand of the Holy Spirit, He changes us in such a way this becomes possible.  We love the LORD more and more each day.