Who Is Hindering Us From Obeying The Truth? Part 7 9-Ways To Win The War Number 7 Loving The Things of God

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 (NKJV)

We are looking at a devotional series titled, Who Is Hindering Us From Obeying The Truth?In the first two Parts of this series, we looked at how we can be hindered when Satan tempts us into believing our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior is not enough to be saved. And we looked at how we can be hindered when the enemy deceives us through distractions and diversions.  It's those times when the enemy can get us to take our eyes off of God, and put them on something else--things distracting us, taking our time, and causing strongholds in our Christian walk. 

So, we are now looking at 9-ways to win this war against Satans temptations, distractions, and strongholds in our lives. The first six things were: 

1.    We need to make Jesus our Lord (Lk. 6:46; Rom. 6:5-14).
2.    We need to Repent (Turn around) (Acts 2:38)
3.    We need to "Stand fast" in the Power of God! (Zech. 4:6; Eph. 6:10; James 4:7)
4.    We need to Get Dressed For Battle--Put on our Spiritual armor. (Eph 6:12-18)
5.    We need to "Think Properly!" (2 Cor 10:5)
6.    Hate Evil (Ps. 36:1-4; Rom. 12:9)
Let's take a look at the 7th thing we must do to win this war on temptations, distractions, and strongholds, which is:

7.    We Need to Love the things of God (Ps. 119:15, 127; Rev. 15:3)

It is not until we truly love the things of God that we will truly hate evil.  Our flesh loves the things of this world and wants to be conformed to this world, and our regenerated spirit is in opposition to these things.  Our spirit needs to be fed the things of God, such as His Word, the worshiping of Him as our Lord, and the fellowship of other believers if we are truly to be transformed (See Rom. 12:1-2). 

Loving the things of God will happen when we finally decide to love everything about God--including His will for our lives.  It is when we begin to trust His plan rather than relying on our own, or worrying about the future.  It is when we decide to go "All In", doing things His way instead of taking short cuts or willfully sinning.  

The first thing we need to know is this; we cannot begin to love the things of God until we are able to receive the things of God.  And we cannot receive the things of God unless we are born again--saved. 

But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.1Corinthians 2:14 (NKJV)
We must have the Spirit of God living in us if we are going to receive and understand God's Word (See 1Cor. 2:11).  Even when we have the Spirit living in us, we can become fixated on the issues we face rather than God.  When this happens the issue will become more important, and God will take what is left of us, which usually isn't much once we have begun to become fearful and doubtful.  These are those times when we trust what we are seeing rather than trusting God and His promises.  

We see Peter doing this a few times within the New Testament.  In Matthew we read one such instance when Jesus had just finished sharing with His disciples about his future death and resurrection.  Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him.  We see Jesus' stern response to Peter's unwillingness to receive God's plan.  

But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." Matthew 16:23 (NKJV)
We can take a lesson from this event and apply it to our own lives as well.  We might not see God's plan clearly, but we must never stop trusting in Him.  He is in control ALL of the time!  There will be things we have to face in our life--things we would rather not face--but these things are all used as a part of God's perfect plan.  

We will be able to resist the enemy's temptation to doubt or be fearful of our future when we fully trust God with our physical lives.  We have placed our faith in Him as our Savior for our Spiritual lives, why would we stop now?  

Hey Christian, I want to encourage you today to make a stand in your belief--trust God with every facet of your life.  Don't give into the temptation to doubt, to fear, to worry, or to become anxiety-ridden.  Walk with confidence--confidence properly placed in God.  Let's let Him be the Lord of our life.

STUDY QUESTION: What great promise are we given in Romans 8:28 for those who love God?

PERSONAL INVENTORY: Do you trust God with everything?  Do you love the things of God, such as His Word, worshipping Him, and spending time in prayer with Him?

APPLICATION: Give the best you have to the things of God.  Spend time in His Word.   Spend time in worshipping Him, which is serving others selflessly, giving to others, and singing praise to Him.  Spend time in prayer, praising Him for what He has done; what He is doing, and seeking Him to ask what He wants to do in your life.