Do you love Jesus for himself unconditionally, or for what you can get out of him?

Do you love Jesus for himself unconditionally, or for what you can get out of him?  Some people are teaching a prosperity Gospel and teaching people to love God for money and all the good things they can get from him, so they just keep taking from God, rather than giving of themselves to him in love and obedience. Don’t be led astray by them.

Jesus clearly said that you can’t love both God and money; therefore a love of God to obtain money is totally wrong.  You need to love God for himself and because you are grateful for his Passion and agonizing death on the Cross not merely for what you can get out of him.  These things which are being taught are the opposite of the Gospels of Jesus Christ where he taught everyone to be selfless.  What is actually happening is that people are being taught to brandish the Bible’s promises in God’s face and holding him to account for them, rather than simply having a childlike trust in him, knowing that he will take care of them. These people are Bible bashers.

When their prayer is for selfish reasons and they don’t get the answer they expected, they can lose their faith in Jesus Christ. For example, someone can repeatedly ask to be healed and isn’t healed.  That person can lose their faith because they haven’t got what they wanted, rather than trusting in God’s will irrelevant of the outcome due to their unconditional love for God. Remember that God doesn’t owe us anything, but instead we owe God everything due to his Son’s finished work on the Cross.

When you truly love God, you don’t need to thrust promises is his face, but simply have faith in him knowing that he knows what is best for you at any given moment and instead think of how happy you will be when you will meet Jesus face to face. It is about a close personal relationship with Jesus Christ based on a complete trust in him.

See Matthew 16:24-28  In other words you either love God or money, as you can’t love both at the same time. Make your choice and see Luke 16:13 

Our faith should not be dependent on whether Jesus gives us more than his victory on the Cross and Resurrection from the dead, but on doing God’s Will.  See the fate that will happen to those who want to use God merely to satisfy all their selfish desires. See what the Lord said in Matthew 7: 21

When you get closer to God He draws you away from money and the riches of this world and he becomes the centre of your life, and you live to do his will and have a personal intimate relationship with him and you don’t even need to hold him to his promises because you trust him to take care of you like a child out of a deep love for him and are totally dependent on him as seen in. Matthew 6:33   This means that if you seek God with all of your heart and seek to be obedient to him and are right with God, then God will give you what you need.  Remember that God wants is to be put in first place before anyone or anything and your focus has got to be God, otherwise if you concentrate on the problem rather than God it is idolatry.  See Proverbs 3:6

Written by Marie-Helene and Dominic Bradshaw

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