2 Corinthians 5:9
Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him
One of my favorite movies is Groundhog Day. The lead character is named Phil and he is a very self-centered person who only thought about himself. He lived to satisfy his desires and needs. He is given a supernatural opportunity to change by living the same day over and over again. He is eventually transformed by falling in love with Rita. True loves impact him and brings him to the place where lives his days caring for others. At the end of the movie having awakened to realize the long repetitive day was over, because of his and Rita’s love for each other, he says this amazingly simple thing; “Is there anything I can do for you today.” True love was manifested in the fact that his one ambition was to please her.
In this same chapter in 2 Corinthians Paul said that he was controlled by the love of Christ. Those words mean a number of things, but they certainly reveal Paul’s great love for Jesus and his great ambition in life; to do everything in his life as an act of love. To please the true Love of His Life. When you truly and selflessly love someone, you live everyday with the ambition of pleasing them. The greater the sacrifice the better. That’s why acts of obedience and service to Him are actually acts of affection. The more costly those acts are the more joy they bring you because they become extravagant acts of affection. The greater the love, the more extravagantly you want to express your love and affection.
We need to adjust our ambitions and become those who live their lives controlled by our love for Christ. Give it a shot tomorrow. When you awake, why not say to Him, “Is there anything I can do for You TODAY.” With great joy and ravished heart, I bet He will respond with something like, “I’m sure I can think of something.” If you live like that, I’m sure you won’t live a repetitively boring life.
Have a great day loving Jesus back.
O How I Love Jesus by Frederick Whitfield
There is a Name I love to hear,
I love to sing its worth;
It sounds like music in my ear,
The sweetest Name on earth.
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O how I love Jesus,
O how I love Jesus,
O how I love Jesus,
Because He first loved me!
It tells me of a Savior’s love,
Who died to set me free;
It tells me of His precious blood,
The sinner’s perfect plea.
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It tells me of a Father’s smile
Beaming upon His child;
It cheers me through this little while,
Through desert, waste, and wild.
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It tells me what my Father hath
In store for every day,
And though I tread a darksome path,
Yields sunshine all the way.
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It tells of One whose loving heart
Can feel my deepest woe;
Who in each sorrow bears
A part that none can bear below.
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It bids my trembling heart rejoice.
It dries each rising tear.
It tells me, in a “still small voice,”
To trust and never fear.
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Jesus, the Name I love so well,
The Name I love to hear:
No saint on earth its worth can tell,
No heart conceive how dear.
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This Name shall shed its fragrance still
Along this thorny road,
Shall sweetly smooth the rugged hill
That leads me up to God.
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And there with all the blood-bought throng,
From sin and sorrow free,
I’ll sing the new eternal song
Of Jesus’ love for me.
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