New Morning Mercies #289

Today, a war of love will be fought on the turf of your heart. Will you be ruled by love for God or for some other lover?

It’s easy to give the right spiritual answer to the question above: “No doubt about it, my heart will be controlled by love for God above all else.” The problem is that at street level, there is still a war of love in our hearts. We do lose our way. Love of the world and the things that are in the world still kidnaps our hearts. We forget God and tell ourselves that we must have _____. Love for God competes in our hearts with love of self. Love for God battles with our craving for the love of others. Material things and physical experiences command our affections and our motivations. Yes, the battle still rages.

I wish I could say this is not true of me, but it is. Sometimes I want my comfort too much, and I become an irritable and grumbling man because I’m not getting what I think I deserve. Sometimes I want to be right too much, and I become aggressive and argumentative. Sometimes I want the respect and affection of others too much, and because I do, I am all too controlled by their opinions. Sometimes I set my heart on a particular thing too much, and I feel bereft until I am able to cobble together a way to get it. Sometimes I want control too much, and I become more demanding than serving. Sometimes I esteem personal pleasure too much, and I invest far too much time in pursuit of it. Sometimes I crave the edible glories of creation too much, and I ingest more than I should.

I find that most of the things that lay claim to my heart and battle for the position that only love for God should have are not evil in and of themselves. The desire to be right, to be respected, to own possessions, to have some control, to experience pleasure, or to eat delicious things is not inherently evil. But here’s the thing that you and I need to remember, what the battle for the love of our hearts is all about: a desire for a good thing becomes a bad thing when that desire becomes a ruling thing. When good things become controlling, they command the affection of our hearts and then shape our words and behavior. When this happens, they take the place in our hearts that only God should have.

You see, we are always placing the love of our hearts on something, and it is important to remember that there are only two places where we can invest that life-shaping love—on the Creator or on the creation. It’s not wrong to love God’s glorious creation, but it’s a spiritual disaster to be ruled by that love. So here is yet another argument for our need for the grace we have been given. We are all in possession of fickle hearts. We all still need protecting and rescuing grace. Thank God that grace has been given!

For further study and encouragement: 2 Timothy 2:22–26