“How can I be praying for you?” I asked a friend recently before they left to return to college.  “That I would love God more,” was their answer.  And that was all.

How often do we pray that way for our church, our family, our friends, ourselves?  How often, when I am offered prayer, are my first thoughts instead composed of my desires for health, wealth, peace, security, safety, hopes and dreams, success, comfort, diligence, and the like.  How often, when I pray, do I just simply pray that I would love God more, that you would love God more, that we would love Him?

Whatever the trial I am going through, that I would love Him more should be my chief aim.  Whatever loss I suffer, whatever sacrifice I make, whatever thing I lack; that I would love Him more, this should be all to me.

Whatever hope I have, whatever dreams, whatever promises made, whatever joy abounds; that I would love Him more, that these would rest in the palm of His hand, and I my head against His chest, this is my hope, my dream, His promise to me, and all that is joy to my soul.  Whatever He gives, that I would be His, and He mine, is sufficient.

We were not called to give ourselves to the things of this world.  We were created to be wholly given unto Him.  And only in this glad surrender to our Creator, our Abba, our Beloved will we be satisfied with that which we long for.

And the first commandment is this: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30 esv).  We are called to have one great love, one great passion—our lives consumed.  Separate from evil, fully yielded unto Him, we are called to be holy as He is Holy—to learn and grow and purify ourselves for this one purpose in all that we do.

Is that you?  Is that your purpose—the purpose of your life, this day, this moment?  What is the purpose of your years, your days, your hours, every minute you breathe this earthen air, every drop of blood you shed for a cause, the sweat and tears as you struggle against the tide and fight for something outside yourself?  It is my heart’s cry that this would be our purpose.

“May we never think that we can love Christ too well, live to Him too thoroughly, confess Him too boldly, lay ourselves out for Him too heartily!  Of all the things that will surprise us in the resurrection morning, this I believe will surprise us most, that we did not love Christ more before we died.”

Copyrighted material, used with permission.