867 Love God or Love the World - 1 John 2:15

Be honest with yourself. Do you love God, or the world?   "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." 1 John 2:15 NASB   You can tell when I'm convicted. I love God. But I still spend a lot of time, money and energy chasing things in the world.   It took me several years to say I loved Jesus. I've always had trouble with authority and my dad and I had trouble. I didn't have good tools to understand what he was going through. My own perspective leads my thinking more than I know and I couldn't understand him or his perspective. He was a great man. I never realized that.   My problems with authority also spilled over into my relationship with God. For the longest time, I thought he got tired of me screwing up. But as I get older, I learn more about his perspective and my dad's, too. Recently, I've started telling Jesus I love him. And I want to love him more.   This verse doesn't give us much room. Either we love God or we love the world. I confess, I enjoy not having a lot of commitments. I enjoy being able to take it easy. I enjoy sweets. I enjoy a lot of the world. but I'm learning to actively love God more. I do that by doing what he says and reading his word, hanging out with his people, talking to him about others. I even try to be a better husband and father and friend.   Let's talk tomorrow about the things that distract us a bit. Today, just tell God you love him. Or if you have a problem with that, I fully understand. I just prayed for you. Ask God to give you more time and trust him. Let's all do what we can and not concentrate on the things we're not able to do. Take a minute and ask God to give you an idea of how you can demonstrate your love for him. Maybe you need to give something away. He'll make it clear to you.   Then head over to Follower of One online community and let us know what you did. There's a post in the community on this podcast. Comment on that post and share what you feel led to share. People in that community will pray for you and your faith will make a difference. Check it out.