We Love God!

God: "I looked for someone to take a stand for me, and stand in the gap" (Ezekiel 22:30)

When we are tempted and seek to know and love God, and like Moses long to see His glory, and out of that occupation of our minds have no further love for that previous temptation, we have experienced something of the reality of the very highest form of freedom from sin. It is one thing to love sin and to force ourselves to quit it; it is another thing to hate sin because love for God is so gripping that the sin no longer appeals. The latter is repentance; the former is reform. It is repentance that God requires. Repentance is “a change of mind.” To love and yet quit it is not the same as hating it and quitting it. Your supposed victory over a sin may be simple displacement. You may love one sin so much (such as your pride) that you will curtail another more embarrassing sin which you also love. This may look spiritual, but there is nothing of God in it. Natural men do it every day.
Jim Elliff

Mary’s bottle contained perfumed oil- pure nard imported from India’s Himalayan Mountains. It was of highest quality and therefore very expensive. She had probably kept it as a family treasure, her most precious possession. Its value approximately the annual wages of a common laborer- a lifetime’s savings! But when it came to Jesus, Mary never even counted the cost. Her love was as pure as her precious ointment. Love like this gives everything and only regrets it has not more to give.
Cheryl Ford