There is a most remarkable comment Brother Lawrence makes in his First Letter that is worthy of our reflection today: I renounce, for the love of Him, everything that was not He; and I began to live as if there was none but He and I in the world. In my humble opinion this is the clearest way I know how to live the spiritual life. We must see both our life and our relationship with God, which are, in fact, one and the same, defined only by our love for God. Nothing else matters, and everything ebbs and flows and has its life and meaning in our love of God. For it is in this context, in our love of God, that we deliberately and willingly renounce and turn away from everything that jeopardizes or alters in any manner our love for Him! Any and everything that is not in Christ Jesus, any and everything that is not sustained and defined by God, Our Almighty Creator and Savior of the entire universe, we are to walk away from and avoid and ignore at all costs. We can still live out our lives, in fact we can live out our lives in the very best manner, when we renounce all that does not support, define, and enliven our love for God. In our thoughts, in our prayer, in our decisions and choices each day, in our quiet time in the Presence of God, in our relationships with everyone in our life, everything must be defined by our love for God and our immediate willingness to renounce and step away from all that is not in service of love of God.
When this begins to take place we are assured that we will see, we will experience, we will choose with the grace of God to live as if there is nothing else that matters in our life but Our Lord and Savior and I in our life in the world. For when nothing else matters but the Lord, this assures us that all that God graces us with and defines our life is all that matters.
Consider these texts that come from the Scriptures:
The early Church knew this to be true: “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men and women by which we must be saved” Acts 4:12. The only salvation in our life, the only hope, the only love that exists in the world is in the name of — in the person of — Jesus Christ! He is who we must live in love of!
And John knew the central truth in life when he penned: “For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him” John 3:16-17. Oh such belief that allows for noting but love of Him who so loved the world that Good Friday and Easter Sunday took place! Oh that we would love the One who came not to condemn but to love us and draw us to love Him!
Paul spoke of the centrality of living by such faith, by such utter and complete trust when he observed this truth: “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” Romans 5:1. Our total love of God, our total faith in Him and Him alone, justifies us, makes us right, assures us of God’s love and our eternal life with the Lord God Almighty!
So today take some time and pray in thanksgiving to the One whose love make us and our love for Him possible!
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” Galatians 2:20.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” Ephesians 2:8-9.
“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” John 14:6.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
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