God Gave Us Ten Problem-Solving Devices  Seventh in the Line of Battle Is Personal Love for God the Father

We have a Father in Heaven Who loves us with a perfect, infinite love. His love goes on forever! We can’t even imagine how much love that is! When we were unbelievers, He loved us with impersonal love. This means that God loved us because of the righteousness or goodness in Himself. Now that we are believers, He loves us with His personal love because of what we have in our souls. When we believed in Jesus Christ as our Savior, God gave us His righteousness, +R. Because we have God’s righteousness or goodness in our souls, He can love us personally. It is our new man with +R, God’s goodness, that He loves.

Romans 5:5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts [minds] by the Holy Spirit, Whom He has given us. [The Holy Spirit teaches us Bible doctrine.]

We love God because He first loved us! There is so much in God the Father for us to love. In personal love, the object of love possesses a virtue, or goodness that makes the object worthy of love. God, the object of our personal love, has awesome virtues! * He is infinitely worthy! He has done everything to deserve our love. He gave His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be our Savior! He is the Author of the predesigned plan for our lives, and gives us everything that we need to live and grow in His plan. He wants us to grow in His grace and knowledge. God loves us personally, and He wants us to know and love Him personally. *Check out the booklet Our God Is An Awesome God.

1 John 4:19 We love because He first loved us. John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

As believers, we have accepted God’s grace gift of salvation. We are now set apart for God so that we can live in His plan. We are in union with the Lord Jesus Christ, part of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a new nature. We still have our old nature, our old sin nature, and we will struggle with it until the day we die. But it is our new nature that we want to enjoy. Let’s live in God’s gracious plan for our lives and grow in personal love for God the Father.

John 17-17 “Sanctify them [set them apart] by the truth; Your word is truth.”

In our new nature, we are perfect, and we can’t make our new nature anymore perfect. However, we can increase our capacity or ability to enjoy and give thanks for all of the blessings God has waiting for us. Our old nature will always be with us. It will try to get us out of God our Father’s plan so that we won’t receive the blessings He has waiting for us. We can look at it this way. God has our blessings waiting for us in a big treasure chest. We just have to open the treasure chest by learning, believing, and using Bible doctrine. The more doctrine we believe and use, the more capacity or ability we will have to enjoy God’s grace blessings. We will be more grateful to Him. We will also grow in our appreciation and love for Him. We will have a special love, personal love for God the Father. What a treasure!

Romans 8:28 To those who love God, He causes all things to work together for good.

The Holy Spirit is the power we need to make us grow in the spiritual life. He is the One who teaches us about the love of God for us, which brings us to personal love for God the Father. God throws the ball of love to us, and then we learn to throw it back to Him. What a great game of catch! Since the Holy Spirit is our Teacher, we must be filled with Him. When we sin, we must rebound. Then we will be able to learn, believe, and use Bible doctrine. We will have divine power!

Romans 5:5 Hope does not disappoint us, because the love for God has been poured out in our minds by means of the Holy Spirit Who was given to us.

Personal love for God the Father can only exist through learning, believing, and using Bible doctrine. Therefore, God the Holy Spirit is the only One who can teach us how to love God the Father. We can’t see God the Father. So, we have to learn about Him through His written Word, the thinking of Jesus Christ, Bible doctrine. The more we learn and believe about God the Father, the more we will have personal love for Him. John 14:26 “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

John 14:26 “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

Personal love for God the Father is a wonderful problem solving device or tool. When we are having difficulties, we can think about God our Father. We can focus on His love, justice, goodness, faithfulness, and all of His other characteristics. We know that our Father wants the best for us, that He is able to give it to us, and that He has given us everything we need to get His best. We can’t even imagine the wonderful things God has waiting for us! We just need to keep growing in the knowledge of Him so that we can enjoy His gracious gifts and have personal love for God the Father!

1 Corinthians 2:9 However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, nor ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him….”

God Gave Us Ten Problem Solving Devices Seventh the Line of Battle Is Personal Love for God the Father References used:                     Robert R.McLaughlin Bible Ministries   www.gbible.org                                        The Doctrine of the 10 Problem-Solving Devices                     Lesson: 6-9-06, Sanctification                     Christian Integrity by R.B. Thieme, Jr.

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