Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God

Author:Francis Chan
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: praying, Christian Life, lukewarm, leftovers, sacrifice, humble, General, Religion, servers
ISBN: 9781434705945
Publisher: David C Cook
Published: 2013-03-31T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both

satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am

painfully conscious of my need for further grace. I

am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune

God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with

longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show

me Thy glory, I pray Thee, so that I may know Thee

indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within

me. Say to my soul, “Rise up my love, my fair one,

and come away.” Then give me grace to rise and

follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have

wandered so long. 1

Have you ever met someone who was utterly and desperately in

love with Jesus? I have. M y wife’s grandma Clara.

I spoke recently at Grandma Clara’s funeral, and I could

honestly tell the mourners gathered that I had never known anyone

more excited to see Jesus. Every morning Clara would kneel by her

bed and spend precious hours with her Savior and Lover; later in

the day, just the sight of that corner of her bed would bring joy-

filled tears and a deep anticipation of the next morning spent

kneeling in His presence.

Grandma Clara acted toward God the way we act toward

people we’re madly in love with.

When you are truly in love, you go to great lengths to be with

the one you love. You’ll drive for hours to be together, even if it’s

only for a short while. You don’t mind staying up late to talk.

Walking in the rain is romantic, not annoying. You’ll willingly

spend a small fortune on the one you’re crazy about. When you

are apart from each other, it’s painful, even miserable. He or she is

all you think about; you jump at any chance to be together.

In his book God Is the Gospel, John Piper essentially asks

whether we are in love with God:

The critical question for our generation—and for every

generation—is this: If you could have heaven, with no

sickness, and with all the friends you ever had on earth,

and all the food you ever liked, and all the leisure

activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beauties

you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted,

and no human conflict or any natural disasters, could

you be satisfied with heaven, if Christ was not there? 2

How many of you will read those words and say, “You know,

I just might be okay with that”? If you are as deeply in love with

God as Grandma Clara was, you know you could never be satisfied

in a heaven without Christ.

Don’t Try so Hard

M y fear in writing the previous chapter is that it only evokes in

you fear and guilt. Personal experience has taught me that actions

driven by fear and guilt are not an antidote to lukewarm, selfish,

comfortable living. I hope you realize instead that the answer is

love.

Grandma Clara used to say, “I love love.” Don’t we all? Don’t

we crave it? And isn’t that what God wants of us—to crave this

relationship with Him as we crave all genuine love relationships?

Isn’t that what brings

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.