To just read the Bible, attend church, and avoid “big” sins – is this passionate, wholehearted love for God? – François Fénelon, The Seeking Heart

In the fall of last year our entire church was reading the book titled, Crazy Love-Overwhelmed By a Relentless God written by Francis Chan. Weekly, we got together, split into small groups and chapter-by-chapter, shared the contents of the book. Through these discussions we gained insight from the author and his perspective on loving God “with all our heart, soul, mind and strength”.  In addition, we gained insight from one another as to how we could/would aptly understand and apply the contents to our lives.

My personal challenge and take-away from this was the startling revelation (yet again) along with a deeper acknowledgement that God deserves to be the center of every detail of my life-period!

The basic synopsis of the book is this:  “Does something deep inside your heart long to break free from the status quo? Are you hungry for an authentic faith that addresses the problems of our world with tangible, even radical, solutions? God is calling you to a passionate love relationship with Himself. Because the answer to religious complacency isn’t working harder at a list of do’s and don’ts – it’s falling in love with God. And once you encounter His love, as Francis describes it, you will never be the same.  Because when you’re wildly in love with someone, it changes everything.”

Does that little blurb whet your appetite? I hope so! And I hope that there is at least one of you who will fall down before a holy God and repent of any complacency in your life, any way that you’ve grown comfortable with your place in life and have allowed duty over relationship to be the main thing.

I leave you with a few quotes from the book to ponder:
* “We have an inaccurate view of God…. He knows that He’s great and deserves to be the center of our lives…. He commands everything from His followers.”

* “On the average day, we don’t consider God very much…. We forget that our life truly is a vapor.”

* “Both worry and stress reek of arrogance.”

* “God longs for us to respond to His extravagant, unending love…not with a cursory ‘quiet time’ plagued by guilt, but with true love expressed through our lives.”

* “Are we in love with God or just His stuff?”

* “A relationship with God simply cannot grow when money, sins, activities, favorite sports teams, addictions, or commitments are piled on top of it.”

* “Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” (Tim Kizziar)

* “Are you willing to say to God that He can have whatever He wants? Do you believe that wholehearted commitment to Him is more important than any other thing or person in your life? Do you know that nothing you do in this life will ever matter, unless it is about loving God and loving the people He has made?”

* “I concur with Annie Dillard, who once said, ‘How we live our days is…how we live our lives.'”

Stephanie Paul

Stephanie Paul, wife and mother of two grown children. An “instrument of change” in the Redeemer’s Hand, in the lives of wounded and hurting women. Currently serving as a part of the Addiction Recovery Team at America’s Keswick as Woman of Character Program Director.