Falling In Love Again: Part One
CBN.com WITH THE LORD
There is no love so rejuvenating as the love that God puts in your heart for Him. My first experience with this great love was as a 6-year-old child. I went to the altar one night and asked Jesus to forgive me of my sins. Through my tears, I experienced the love of God for the first time in my life.
It becomes difficult to maintain that first love for Christ, because God's enemy, Satan, knows each of us well enough to lure us away from the Lord. As human beings, we are attracted primarily to three things: sex, money, and power. In
, God tells us that everything in the world can be put into one of three categories: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, or the pride of life.When Satan tempted Jesus, these were the weapons that he used (see
). God wants to use this story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness to let us know that it is human to be tempted. Jesus was tempted in all points, like we are, and yet He was without sin (see ).King David prayed, "Restore unto me the joy of my salvation. Then will I teach transgressors your ways and sinners will be converted unto you" (
). James promises that if we will draw near to God, then He will draw near to us (see ). His love for you is as intense as ever, and He longs for you to share that love with Him.WITH LIFE
Depression is the most common emotional problem in our society.
While it has many sources, a common cause of depression is a negative attitude toward life. At times this is the history of the person's view of life; they have never learned to love life. Many times depressed people look back on times when they did feel like they loved life but then some crisis occurred or tragedy happened that took the love of life away from them.
Some people have a history of tragic loss or series of losses from which they have never recovered. Depression can be a response to the loss of a loved one, a parent, or a sibling. But anytime a person loves someone more than they love God and more than they love life, they are in trouble, for sooner or later, death will separate us from those we love on earth--and from life itself.
Grief is a natural response to loss. Six months or so is a normal grieving time for something like a business loss or property loss. However, when you lose a loved one, it may take one to two years to recover from grief. When you do your grief work well, you should be able to recover your life again and move on.
| Dr. Richard D. Dobbins is the leader of EMERGE Ministries of Akron, Ohio. He serves on the faculty of Ashland Theological Seminary and initiated the coordination of their masters program in Pastoral Counseling. An acclaimed author, Dr. Dobbins has created numerous film/video presentations on topics of interest to believers and has written many books, booklets, articles and audiotapes on Christian mental health care. Copyright 2001 EMERGE Ministries, Akron, Ohio. Used with persmission. |
