I was musing on my way home listening to the radio when a thought came to me. It's a Christianity-related blog so feel free to ignore and move on if you do not subscribe to that theology. If you do, feel free to take a read. It's a written challenge for myself and for brothers and sisters in Christ. Enjoy!

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"Thank you, Lord for all You've done. I love You for Your amazing grace in dying on the Cross for me to save me from myself."

Have you ever prayed that prayer? I think most if not all Christians have prayed a prayer similar to that. We all know that we are called to love and be in love with the God who gave up his everything and his Son who loved beyond Himself just to be with us. Yet, the Bible contains multiple hundreds of pages, a majority of which happened before the birth of this Son whom we've been called to love. It contains heroes like Noah, Moses, Abraham, Elijah...

and David - the man who was said to know the very heart of God. David loved the Lord perhaps as much as any man can, and actively sought to please the heart of God through his life worship.

But Jesus hadn't even died for him yet. There was no eternal sacrifice that David could point to and say, "I love you for this act of sacrifice." How then did David come to love and be in love with God more than any other in the Bible. How could he be so infatuated with God without the fateful sacrifice that seems to "bind" us so to God's side.

I realized lately that I had never really been in love with God. I had never truly been infatuated with the bridegroom, despite knowing my place as the Bride of Christ. I had never had a serious devotion and infectious love for the King of kings and Lord of lords. Love entails commitment. Love is ALL ABOUT commitment. You don't show love to a wife by bringing her flowers on her birthday or taking her out to eat at a fancy restaurant. You show love by picking up the kids from school every day, by starting her car in the morning so it's not cold, and even by remembering to put down the toilet seat. That last thought is something my dad taught me when I was young and I have kept ever since.

Love is commitment. Love for God is a commitment made for eternity. Even now it's hard to even imagine that, but God has called us to be with him for ETERNITY. True love for God is one that lasts for all time even beyond life on Earth.

But what does it mean to really be in love with God. Why was David so after the heart of the Father? In David's time, God had not saved man from himself. Instead, they paid for their sins by shedding the blood of a sacrificial animal (usually a lamb/calf). How then did David fall so in love with a God whom he had no spiritual debt to.

God's impact on the life of David is usually described through David's dealing with King Saul. David had to run for his life from the king who wanted to kill him and save his throne and power. The favor of God is said to have left Saul and settled upon David, thus David escaped Saul's attacks and eventually would claim the seat of King of Israel.

But that's not where his walk with God began. David from an early age was a shephard boy, tending the sheep for his family while his brothers went off to fight wars for Israel. It was in this place that David began his walk with God. He would sing songs and dance dances of worship in the fields as he tended the sheep. He would encounter wild animals like lions and bears, and would defend the sheep by killing the beasts that threatened them. With little more than the slings and stones, clubs and staves that he used to tend to his flock, David slew wild beasts with the help of God. His faith in a Father and the protection that He provided allowed David to fearlessly go after beast after beast and later after the threatening Phillippian army and its giant Goliath. The love of God that was so accredited to David began when he was young, through a daily story of faith and salvation.

David hadn't met Jesus yet and didn't know of the amazing sacrifice He would pay through his own blood. And yet he had the greatest love for God the Father (the songs he wrote in Psalms tell the tale of a deep and amazing love) that anyone in the Bible ever did. I've decided to challenge myself daily to find more and more reasons for why I should, can, and will fall in love with the amazing God of Israel. Even the clouds in the sky serve as testament to his beauty. He spoke life into being and has called us to that same power of creation.

I challenge you as well to build a story of faith with God and his impact on your life. What beasts have you slain and what Goliaths have you defeated? Let us move forward into true love with God and his Son Jesus Christ through our individual faith stories and not rely on the beautiful death on the Cross as our only reason for love. Let us boldly accept the calling of power and creation that God has given us, and let us walk in that power in our daily lives.