Keeping Your Relationship With Jesus Alive

 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

1 John 4:10

Keeping your relationship with Jesus alive is about loving Him with everything in you. It is not about doing things to see how good you can be. It is about loving Him with every action you take. It is not about playing the "church game" or seeing how spiritual you can look. It is about loving God with your whole being, the very core of who you are.

The relationship God wants with you is one in which you love Him with everything you are because you know He loves you with everything He is.

The Bible says, "God is love" (1 John 4:8). Anytime you get close to God, you're getting close to love. It's what He is made of. He wants a relationship in which you love Him willingly and are able to receive His love.

A lot of people think that having a relationship with God is just about following a bunch of rules and regulations and being good so that God will love you more. It has nothing to do with that. It has nothing to do with whether you keep the rules or not. He loved you before you ever gave your heart to Him. When you begin to understand His love, you want to love Him back.

God's love is about having a real relationship-a friendship- with Him, and becoming the person you have always wanted to be and He wants you to be. Because you have fallen in love with the most incredible God of all humankind and realize that He is real, you want to follow Him with all your heart.

No one in the world loves us enough to die for us, especially if they knew all of our worst secrets. But that's what God did for each of us. Think about this: God loved you first, even before you loved Him.

Over the next week take some time to really think about what Jesus did for you on the cross. Journal about what the Lord has brought you through and how he has shown His love for you.

Check out event highlights from the Greater New York BattleCry 2009!