We Love the Living God

Opening Prayer: 

Our God, whom we love, you have revealed yourself in the Bible as the one, eternal, living God who governs all things according to your sovereign will and for your saving purpose. In the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you alone are the Creator, Ruler, Judge, and Saviour of the world. So we love you—thanking you for our place in creation, submitting to your sovereign providence, trusting in your justice, and praising you for the salvation you have accomplished for us. Amen.

Reflection:

We love God above all rivals. We are commanded to love and worship the living God alone. But like Old Testament Israel, we allow our love for God to be adulterated by going after the gods of this world, the gods of the people around us. We fall into syncretism, enticed by many idols such as greed, power, and success, serving mammon rather than God. We accept dominant political and economic ideologies without biblical critique. We are tempted to compromise our belief in the uniqueness of Christ under the pressure of religious pluralism. Like Israel, we need to hear the call of the prophets and of Jesus himself to repent, to forsake all such rivals, and to return to obedient love and worship of God alone.

We love God with passion for his glory. ‘If God desires every knee to bow to Jesus and every tongue to confess him, so should we. We should be “jealous” (as Scripture sometimes puts it) for the honour of his name—troubled when it remains unknown, hurt when it is ignored, indignant when it is blasphemed, and all the time anxious and determined that it shall be given the honour and glory which are due to it. The highest of all missionary motives is neither obedience to the Great Commission (important as that is), nor love for sinners who are alienated and perishing (strong as that incentive is, especially when we contemplate the wrath of God) but rather zeal—burning and passionate zeal—for the glory of Jesus Christ . . . Before this supreme goal of the Christian mission, all unworthy motives wither and die.’ John Stott [1]

Lament and confess that in our world, the living God is not glorified as he ought to be. The living God is denied in aggressive atheism. The one true God is replaced or distorted in the practice of world religions. Our Lord Jesus Christ is abused and misrepresented in some popular cultures. And the face of the God of biblical revelation is obscured by Christian nominalism, syncretism, and hypocrisy.

Closing Prayer: 

Loving you, God, in the midst of a world that rejects or distorts you, calls for bold but humble witness to our God; robust but gracious defence of the truth of the gospel of Christ, your Son; and prayerful trust in the convicting and convincing work of your Holy Spirit. We commit ourselves to such witness, for if we claim to love you we must share your greatest priority, which is that your name and your Word should be exalted above all things. Amen.

Call upon God for such an outpouring of his Spirit that we, his people, will be assured of his love through his Word.

[1] John Stott, The Message of Romans, The Bible Speaks Today (Leicester and Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1994), 53.