This week, Michael writes
that the Lord is always looking for men and women to talk with those who do not
know about the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, the one person
we should be looking for is “the person in the mirror”. What is it that a child
of God should desire most? God said through the Psalmist in Psalm 37:4, “delight thyself also in the Lord and he will give you the desires of
your heart.” In order to desire the things of God, we must actively,
deliberately, and purposefully delight ourselves in the Lord. Then, when our
delight is His delight, and our desire is His desire, God will work in us and
through us to will and to do of His good pleasure.
To desire the Lord and to
set our affection on things above, remember the acronym KFLO. The first and
highest desire is represented by the letter “K”: to “Know God deeply and
abidingly” by knowing His character and His nature. The Bible says
repeatedly, rejoice in the Lord always
and again I say rejoice. Know God intimately because He’s worth knowing.
According to Philippians 3:8, Paul said, “I consider all things but loss except for the knowledge of God.”
Everything else is worthless, detestable, and repugnant except for knowing the
Lord. The Lord, through the Apostle Paul says, in Ephesians 1:17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father
of mercy may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
The eyes of your understanding being
enlightened that you may know the hope of your calling and the riches of the
glory of your inheritance in the Saints. This passage refers to the precise
and correct knowledge of our Father. We must know correctly who God is
according to His rightly divided Word; the Holy Bible. Prayer cannot come from
a depth of fear, rather prayer must come from a confident and faith-based trust
in the sovereign Lord. Unless the Lord
builds the house it is built in vain. Jesus said, “you do err, not knowing the Scriptures or the power of God.” An
intimate knowledge of God is required to appropriate the power of God.
Jesus said in Matthew
16:24, “If anyone comes after me
he must deny himself, pick up his cross daily and follow me.”
“F” stands for “following
Christ more closely.” In any situation the best course of action is to
closely watch Jesus. Our heart’s desire must be to “choke in the Master’s dust”,
(aka follow closely). Jesus said, “if you
continue in my word, then shall you be my disciples (disciplined followers)
indeed. When we follow Him closely there is no distance between myself and
my Lord. Follow Him in lockstep, for he knows the destination and the way. Jesus
also said to the crowds that followed him,
if you want to be my disciples, you will need to “eat my flesh and drink my
blood.” They didn’t understand that He was talking about the communion
ceremony that would memorialize His death and resurrection to redeem them from
their sin nature. They did not follow Jesus around because they wanted to be His
disciplined followers. They just wanted to be entertained by witnessing a
miracle. At that point of hearing about eating flesh and drinking blood, the
crowds scattered because they didn’t understand the depth of the commitment
required to follow Christ.
“L” stands for “loving
him more deeply.” If you profess to love Christ, but don’t do His will, do
you really love him? If Jesus is truly the Lord of your life, then the term “No
Lord, I won’t do that” is an oxymoron. Do we desire to love Him the way He asks
us to love him? Jesus said that anyone who loves his father or mother more than
me does not deserve me, he is not worthy of me. The example of love is that Jesus Christ, even while we were yet
sinners, laid down his life for us. To lie down means to appoint or to
position ourselves to serve the Lord by serving one another. Jesus Christ said,
in this shall they know that you are my
disciples in that you love one another.
“O” stands for “obeying
Christ more completely.” In our secular politically correct culture, the
word “obey” is a dirty word. But if anyone obeys Christ’s word, truly his love
is made complete. Chose you this day whom
you will serve and obey, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Philippians 2:8 says, “And being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
Christ’s obedience resulted in your salvation and mine. Therefore, trust and
obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus than to trust and obey.
In your desire for the Lord
remember the acronym KFLO: to know him more intimately, to follow him more
closely, to love him more deeply and to obey him more completely. The prayer of
the people of God is, “Oh for a closer
walk with thee… But what doth the
Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with
thy God.”
May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ, Michael
Your brother in Christ, Michael
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