Just Open the Valve

Do you ever wonder what God wants us to be doing? What exactly is his will for you today, this hour, this moment?

I’m a Christian. I have been studying his word, seeking his kingdom and his righteousness for a long time. I have been doing all sorts of Christian stuff. I help with the church's activities and operations. I support various Christian causes with my money. I pray the Lord’s prayer, “His will be done.” I pray for others. I even grabbed the broom and swept up all the leaves that blew into the church lobby and scattered across the floor.

Does any of this harangue resonate with your own experience? Do you feel like you are doing almost your best, almost, most of the time?

Jesus boiled the law and the prophets down to two commands.

36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:36-40 ESV)

These two assignments are easy to understand. And yes, there are all sorts of challenges implied in Jesus’ words, but we can strive to obey them. When we love God first, it will make all those “things” we also love, not first. Going down this road helps us to be generous, eat healthy, and work on transforming our minds to be more and more like Jesus.

If I love God with all my everything, then everything else that is bad for me and damaging to his kingdom, I’ll love not so much. OK, we can strive for that. Just do it!

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Something feels just a little bit wrong with how I’m thinking about all this. The victory in it always seems just out of reach.  The finish line sort of moves a bit farther out just when I think I’m getting close.

Then there is the part about loving my neighbor. I can work on that one, too. I’ll be a nice guy. I’ll help those neighbors when they need help. I need not be stingy when they come to borrow something I love and have carefully cared for. Sure, you can borrow my chainsaw. Here it is. Oh, and take the gas can and the oil, you will need them. Let me sharpen the chain for you.

I’m trying to love those neighbors, but at the same time, I don’t think God wants me to be taken advantage of.  What about being a good steward of what he has given me?  How does that fit in?

“Your will be done, but God, what exactly is your will?” And while I’m waiting for an answer to that question, I will strive to love You first, and then work on loving everyone else. I hope you know that I’m doing my best regarding those two things. Sometimes I fall short and a little bit of self-love slips into my life. I know this is not good. When it happens, I feel bad, but I know I’m forgiven and I get right back to loving You and that neighbor of mine as fast as I can.”

That paragraph sounds like a rant.  It was a rant.

Then a moment of quiet settles in as the Holy Spirit erases the mess on the whiteboard in my mind.

“David, you have it wrong!” God whispers. His voice sounds like a great shout. A monumental truth crystallizes in my mind. This is for sure the Holy Spirit at work in me. An unexpected thought.  A word from God that lines up with the word of God. Quickly, I jot it down in my little Moleskine notebook. I marvel at how God can be so personal with me when he has a few billion of us to deal with.  God whispers, “David, write an article about that.”

You are reading it now.

God is not commanding us to work hard to love Him and then work even harder to love our neighbor. His commands are not work assignments, the completion of which, always just out of reach.

I have strived to obey Jesus' two commands and all the other commands in the Bible. Plus, I did my share of wallowing in the angst of figuring out exactly what his will is for me in every situation, every day, every hour, and every minute. All this trying and thinking was making me tired and unlovable as I stretched, with all my fleshly might, for the goal of pleasing God.

I heard God say, “When you love me, stand in awe of me, and hear my Spirit. You will experience my great and limitless love for you. You will feel my embrace. Believe in and into my love. All I ask is that you let it flow through you to others. That’s it. Open the love valve and let my love flow through you to them. No striving.”

News flash from God: “You’re a valve, not a generator!”

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ  as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in him. (Eph 1:7-10 ESV)

Now read that again.  Maybe even three times. “Making known to us the mystery of his will.” There it is! He, God the Father, will make it known to us the mystery of his will. Jesus commands that love God and love our neighbor. This is our calling. And he promises to make his will known to us, our individual assignment in partnership with him.

One aspect of God’s will that we can always be sure of is that he loves the person in front of you, or the one you are thinking about. The purpose of the love flowing from God through us is often simply to help others know God loves them, too. Perhaps the love flow of yours will be just the spark God is sending to ignite the flow of his love through someone else.

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Mini Testimony: “For me, loving God is a combination of telling him that I love him (pray the Shema[i]), an intentional heart posture of love towards him, and prioritizing the seeking of his kingdom through hearing his voice in the study of his word. I just do this stuff, and his love flows. In that flow of love to me, his will is made clear in my mind. Most often it is to let his love flow to those around me through actions in obedience to his will. This is joy.”

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Funny how when a mystery is made known to you, you wonder why it was such a mystery in the first place. This revelation — that we are to be a conduit for the Father's love to flow to us and through us — seems obvious now. And, in embracing this flow of love, his will is made known to us. No striving.

I love those who love me,
    and those who seek me diligently find me. (Prov 8:17 ESV)

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. (Jer 29:13 ESV)

Examples of the Flow of Love in Action

·        Pray for others.

·        Go man fishing, share the Gospel, mention Jesus.

·        Be an example displaying the joy and trust you have as an adopted son or daughter of God.

·        Watch for those that God puts in front of you and take time to engage with one ear attentive to the Holy Spirit for words to share or actions to take.

A Whispered Shout

“Shut down that energy-consuming generator before it runs out of gas or needs major maintenance. Just open the love valve.”

[i] The Shema is the ancient Jewish prayer from Deuteronomy 6:4-5: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”