{"id":3385,"date":"2017-03-20T10:00:25","date_gmt":"2017-03-20T14:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/voh\/?p=3385"},"modified":"2017-03-09T16:05:58","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T21:05:58","slug":"cultivating-love-for-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/voh\/2017\/03\/20\/cultivating-love-for-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Cultivating Love for God"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I developed a love for photography from a young age. I received my first disposable camera as a gift to use during a family vacation. My photos were quite\u00a0pointless. But it was a blast.<\/p>\n<p>A few years later I started doing mini \u201cphoto shoots\u201d with my friends in the backyard, capturing the moments on my film camera. I always loved people, so photographing my friends was a natural outcome. Eventually I moved to digital photography, and finally invested in an SLR. Many years later, I still love photography.<\/p>\n<p>All of us delight in something. It could be a hobby, a friend, sports, or entertainment. But how do we delight in what&#8217;s most important?\u00a0Namely, how do we cultivate delight in God Himself?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>We start by recognizing our need to\u00a0increase our delight for God.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In order for one thing to increase, another must decrease. Just like Eve in the garden, who saw the tree as a <strong>\u201cdelight to the eyes\u201d<\/strong> (Gen. 3:6, ESV), so we often turn to temporary things for delight. Our flesh wants immediate gratification. We must confess this and recognize that only the Lord can satisfy with true delight.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Then we must steep our hearts and minds in the truth<\/em> <em>of God&#8217;s Word<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>&#8220;Great are the\u00a0works of the\u00a0Lord,\u00a0<em>studied<\/em> by all who delight in them.&#8221;<\/strong> (Ps. 111:2, ESV)<\/p>\n<p>Think about it. How do you increase love for a sport or a hobby? Study!\u00a0Because I love photography, I choose to learn from those who are better than I am\u2014studying techniques, methods, and gathering ideas. It might be a lot of work, but it isn\u2019t drudgery. It\u2019s fun, because I delight in it.\u00a0Similarly, we must spend time in God&#8217;s Word if we desire to delight in Him.\u00a0Psalm 1:2 displays\u00a0this when it describes the blessed man: <strong>&#8220;his\u00a0delight is in the law\u00a0of the\u00a0Lord,\u00a0and on his\u00a0law he meditates day and night.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>The third step to increase our delight in God requires<\/em>\u00a0<em>walking in obedience<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>&#8220;I delight to do your will, O my God;\u00a0your law is\u00a0within my heart.&#8221;<\/strong>\u00a0(Ps. 40:8)<\/p>\n<p>As our hearts are filled with the truth of\u00a0Scripture, we will see where we need to walk in obedience. We will increasingly love Him more and abhor our sin more deeply. The Word brings light and reveals where we aren&#8217;t walking in obedience, and if we\u00a0delight in God, we will obediently respond. Our own sinful\u00a0desires fade compared to the\u00a0lasting fulfillment found in Him\u00a0as we\u00a0walk in obedience.<\/p>\n<p>There is nothing that can ever come close to the delight that comes from God alone. But there is nothing that is more difficult. Choose to fight for delight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I developed a love for photography from a young age. I received my first disposable camera as a gift to use during a family vacation. My photos were quite\u00a0pointless. But it was a blast. A few years later I started doing mini \u201cphoto shoots\u201d with my friends in the backyard, capturing the moments on my&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/voh\/2017\/03\/20\/cultivating-love-for-god\/\">read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":3386,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[1],"tags":[5153,4931],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cultivating Love for God - Vision of Hope<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/voh\/2017\/03\/20\/cultivating-love-for-god\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cultivating Love for God - Vision of Hope\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I developed a love for photography from a young age. I received my first disposable camera as a gift to use during a family vacation. My photos were quite\u00a0pointless. But it was a blast. 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