The next entry for my Blog is I Love You Lord, which was written by Laurie Klein and released in 1976. A link to The Maranatha Singers performing the song is at the bottom of the Blog.
I Love You Lord
I love you, Lord
And I lift my voice
To worship You
Oh, my soul, rejoice!
Take joy my King
In what You hear
Let it be a sweet, sweet sound
In Your ear
This is a song that gets into my head and into my heart and fills my heart with joy and brings me comfort. It is just a simple chorus with a powerful meaning. It is a good song to use when starting a bible study, small group, etc.; anywhere people are gathered in his name. Try to take the time to listen to the song and open your heart to its message.
I love you Lord. How many times have you said this with your lips, but it didn’t come from your heart? There are a large number of definitions for love and I looked at a few of them. As I pondered my question about love, I came to the opinion that each of us has our own definition of love. As you think of your own personal meaning, let it come from your heart and not from books, movies, social media, TV, etc. It doesn’t really matter how the word is defined elsewhere, how does your heart define love when it comes to your relationship with Christ? The bible tells us in Mark 14:30-31, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” This clearly tell us that love is giving our all to God and that our love should come from our deepest being, and not be just spoken words. Note that Jesus commands us to love and that there is no greater commandment. In John 14:15, Jesus tells Peter, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” If we love the Lord in the way he has commanded us to do, we will put him first in all facets of our life. Notice that we are told to love the Lord, we are given an absolute directive.
As we praise God and thank him for all he has done, is doing, and will do in our lives; we should unashamedly raise our voices. It doesn’t mean just singing loudly in church or raising our hands in praise, it means we should not be ashamed of the gospel and God’s promises and all people should know that we love our Lord from the depths of our soul and praise him for everything. In addition to praising God and giving him thanks, we should also worship him. To worship is to honor God for who he is and submit ourselves humbly to him; it is to acknowledge that he is the almighty God who made us and has prepared a heavenly home for us. There is no person or being other than God who is worthy of our worship. Music and praise are a part of what God expects us to do, and it is something we probably do when we go to church or pray; but worshipping him with a humble heart is what he deserves the most from each of us. As we fully open our hearts and worship him, we feel a greater joy and peace that only he can provide. This makes us want to rejoice and sing his praises from the mountain tops.
God loves us, sent his son to die for us, and I am of the opinion he wants to hear from us all the time. I believe our prayers, praises, and worship bring joy to his heart. It shows that although we are not perfect, we love him and realize that there would be no us, there would be no hope, and there would be promise of tomorrow without him. In 1st Thessalonians 5:17, we are told to “Pray without ceasing”; this means that God wants to commune with us and hear our praises as well as hear our needs at any time day or night. We want him to know that we are glad we are his children and that there is no better life than a life with him. I am sure he looks forward to hearing the melodious sound of the voices of his children. If you have children, you know they have good days and bad days, but we still want to hear their voices and know that they are ok; because we love them. Think about the times when you go long periods of time when you don’t hear from a child or loved one, how does it make you feel? At least God always knows what is happening in our lives, but he also wants to feel our love and hear our voices.
Have you reached out to God today?