20th entry - Loving the Lord our God

Many Christians are what I call "Festival Christians" who remember God a few times a year during religious-based festivals such as Christmas. To me, they are no different than "Sunday Christians" who remember God once a week, in fact only during the church service itself. I was someone like that in the past, but even now I still need reminders like the following devotional to remind myself to try being faithful to God. I think I even need to ask myself how much I really love God.

For some of us, loving God means thinking of Him all the time; meditating on His word day and night; looking forward to the next church meeting or service; and waiting eagerly for a chance to worship and pray and praise Him. But even couples who love each other deeply and are willing to sacrifice their lives for each other may not think about each other all the time; reflect on what they said to each other day and night; look forward to the next dinner appointment; or even wait eagerly for a chance to make love (not just physical intimacy) to each other.

Faithfulness is not about going to church every Sunday - even every day of the week for that matter - or about attending cell group regularly or about remembering to pray - ultimately it is an expression of our love to God. And loving God is ultimately about setting aside our time, our effort and our "bandwidth" in our thoughts and hearts for Him who matter most to us. It also means telling our loved ones about God, sharing with them the good news of salvation - being the beacon of light shining through the darkness.

As we mature in life, we realise that when we love someone, we usually dont expect the person to love us back in equal measure, even though this could be a desire in our hearts. Parents' love for their children is the best example of this. I think its the same for God our Heavenly Father- He loves us with all of His heart, but only hopes we can love Him with all of ours too. Whether we succeed in showing Him we love Him wholeheartedly, the least we can do is to TRY.

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“O Come All Ye Faithful…”
by John Fischer

…And not so faithful, too.


There is a saying that was popular in the early days of the church. Paul called it a “trustworthy saying” in a letter to Timothy: “If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we endure, we will also reign with Him. If we disown Him, He will disown us; if we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He cannot disown Himself” (2 Timothy 2:11-13 NIV).

Have you ever come to Christmas season, caught yourself singing, “O Come All Ye Faithful,” and wondered: “Who’s that? Who can say they have been totally faithful to Christ?” If we were honest, could anyone say they were entirely faithful in their walk with God? I would want to add, “Compared to what?” because “faithful” would have to be a relative thing. We all fail Him from time to time. We all struggle with faith. We all prove to be unfaithful partners with God.

In other words, if our security with God depended on our faithfulness to Him, I’m afraid we would all be in bad shape; but the good news is: our security with God depends on His faithfulness to us.

Jesus chided his disciples for having “little faith,” but He did not kick them off the team for it. He called His followers an “unbelieving generation,” but He did not abandon them. And in spite of the saying above about disowning those who disown Him, Jesus apparently made an exception to that rule for Peter, who on three occasions disowned having any part of Christ. He later forgave Peter and accepted him back.

As we come to the end of another year, I’m sure we can all recall times when we struggled with faith, had a hard time finding it, or perhaps found ourselves unfaithful to God. Some may be in such a place right now. This is a time to worship God for His faithfulness to us. We may have let go of Him, but He will never let go of us, because we are His, and He cannot disown what belongs to Him.

So for us, faith is a relative thing. We all struggle with our own demons. Maybe for you, “faithful” means you’re ready to get yourself back in the fold. Can’t think of a better time to do it with a New Year coming up.

“O come all ye faithful…” and not so faithful, too! The most important thing is to come!