Love from the Inside Out
Introduction
Celine, a young woman who came on Alpha because of what she described as her ‘spiritual search’, wrote, ‘I am not entirely sure what happened! Over the course I have grown more and more thirsty for God’s presence like when on a hot, dry summer’s day one gets a sip of cold fresh water, just the right temperature, one wants to drink and drink, and one never gets enough.
‘I am now constantly skipping and laughing and wanting to tell everyone how amazing God is… plus I seem to love everybody! I was seeking to forgive someone, but just seemed to grow more and more bitter and resentful, until I came on Alpha… It’s gone, I have totally forgiven that person and love them too!’
She says that she is now ‘passionately in love with Christ!’ Her inner thirst is being satisfied. She has a new inner light and a new inner love.
Psalm 42:1–5
1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, my God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
‘Where is your God?’
4 These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
under the protection of the Mighty One
with shouts of joy and praise
among the festive throng.
5 Why, my soul, are you downcast?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Saviour and my God.
Commentary
Inner thirst
Are there times when you have a nebulous feeling and you don’t know quite what it is that is causing you to be ‘downcast’? You are not alone. The psalmist knew this feeling: ‘Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?’ (v.5a). God does not want you to stay in this place – he loves you and he wants to encourage you.
The psalmist speaks of an inner thirst: ‘As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you’ (v.1). He continues, ‘My inner self thirsts for God’ (v.2, AMP).
Only God himself can satisfy this thirst. Knowledge about God will not satisfy your inner thirst. Cry out for God’s presence. Meet with God (v.2) and pour out your soul (v.4).
Worship is key: The psalmist says: ‘I was always at the head of the worshiping crowd, right out in front, leading them all, eager to arrive and worship, shouting praises, singing thanksgiving – celebrating, all of us, God’s feast!’ (v.4, MSG). Remember past experiences of God’s favour and his blessings. This will inspire you to keep trusting in God and give you strength to worship him again (v.5b-6a).
Prayer
Luke 11:33–54
33 “No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy, your body also is full of darkness. 35 See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. 36 Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.”
37 When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. 38 But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.
39 Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But now as for what is inside you—be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.
42 “Woe to you Pharisees, because you... neglect justice and the love of God. ...
43 “Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces.
46 ... “And you experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.
53 When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, 54 waiting to catch him in something he might say.
Commentary
Inner light
With the worldwide spread of the coronavirus, washing your hands is extremely important. However, Jesus says a clean heart and conscience are even more important than clean hands. What goes on in your heart and thoughts really matters. Your eyes are key – they are the gate to the inner life. That is why what you look at matters so much. You let things into your inner life through your eyes. Your eyes also reflect what is going on in your heart.
Jesus calls you to fill your inner being with light: ‘Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky. Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room’ (vv.34–36, MSG).
Jesus calls you to an intimate and loving relationship with God – to that secret place, the heart, where true contact with God takes place. He calls you to be clean on the inside, not just on the outside (v.39). It is no good appearing clean outwardly if inside you are full of ‘greed and wickedness’ (v.39).
The focus of the inner life, according to Jesus, is the poor: ‘Give as donations to the poor… and behold, everything is purified and clean for you’ (v.41, AMP). Giving cleanses the heart.
Jesus goes on to say that outward giving in itself is not enough if you neglect ‘justice and the love of God’ (v.42).
As Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa writes, ‘It would be a mistake to think that insistence on the inner life could harm our energetic commitment to the kingdom and to justice. Far from diminishing the importance of acting for God, interior life lays its foundation and keeps it going.’
Jesus warns these religious leaders about wrong attitudes of the heart into which we can so easily fall. These words are a challenge to those of us in any kind of leadership. Jesus warns against:
1. Self-importance
‘You love the most important seats’ (v.43).
2. Love of recognition
‘Greetings in the market-place’ (v.43).
3. Hypocrisy
There is a danger of teaching a standard that we ourselves fail to live up to: ‘You load people down with burdens they can hardly carry and you will not lift one finger to help them’ (v.46).
Jesus was not afraid to confront people about their inner lives. He was not afraid of confrontation nor was he afraid of making enemies. It is not surprising that the object of his attack, the religious leaders, began to oppose him fiercely (v.54).
Prayer
Deuteronomy 6:5–12,7:7–8,8:3–18
6
5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
12 … be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
7
7 The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery...
8
3 ... human beings does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
17 You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth...
Commentary
Inner love
At the heart of the Old Testament, as of the New Testament, is love. ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength’ (6:5). The Hebrew words here are much broader than any translation can fully capture, something that is probably reflected in the New Testament using a fourfold translation (heart, soul, strength, mind). The phrase is meant to sum up the whole of life, including both mind and will.
God always intended that the law of love should be internal – in the heart: ‘Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children’ (v.6, MSG).
Your love for God flows out of his love for you. His love for you is not dependent on any innate moral quality that you possess. It is the grace of God – loving us in spite of our sins, weaknesses and failures. ‘The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the Lord loves you’ (7:7–8a). He loves you because he loves you!
God showers his love upon you because of his loving character and his faithfulness: ‘The Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you… He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers’ (vv.12–13).
You are called to this intimate and loving relationship with God. However, there are three warnings given in chapter 6:
1. The danger of abandoning God because of the surrounding idolatry – ‘do not follow other gods’ (6:14)
There is the temptation to fit in with the surrounding culture and adopt the beliefs of the people around us. However, God wants you to remain faithful to him rather than merely seeking to fit in with those around you.
2. The danger of doubting God because of hardship – ‘do not test the LORD’ (6:16)
When hardship comes, the temptation is to think that God no longer cares about you, but you need to hold on to the faithfulness and word of God.
God allows you to go through tests and trials so you can learn by experience that doing things his way is the best way. If you will not serve and worship him in the hard times of life (the valleys), you may not consistently serve and worship him in the good times (the mountaintops). Remember that mountaintops encourage you, but valleys mature you.
3. The danger of forgetting God because of affluence – ‘do not forget the LORD’ (6:12)
In the enjoyment of the gift, you can sometimes forget the giver. ‘But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth’ (8:18).
Underlying these three warnings is the realisation that material things alone – whether personal possessions or ‘idols’ – do not satisfy: ‘human beings do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord’ (8:3).
Jesus quoted this verse when he was being tempted in the desert by the devil to satisfy his physical hunger in the wrong way. His response to the devil was that it is the inner life – the inner hunger – that is far more important than the material things. This inner hunger can only be satisfied by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Whether you are materially well-off or not, the focus of your life should be on the inner life which alone can satisfy the deep inner longing which God has put in every human heart.
Prayer
Pippa adds
Deuteronomy 6:12 says:
‘… be careful that you do not forget the LORD…’
I must have said to my children, thousands of times over the years, ‘Do be careful,’ and I still do! It was mostly for their physical safety, but forgetting God is far more dangerous than not tying their shoelaces or riding a bicycle with no lights or breaks.
Verse of the Day
Deuteronomy 7:6
'You are his treasured possession.'
Thought for the Day
You are loved by God... because he loves you.
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References
Raniero Cantalamessa, The Mystery of Easter, (The Liturgical Press, 1994) p.105.
The Bible with Nicky and Pippa Gumbel (commentary formerly known as Bible in One Year) ©Alpha International 2009. All Rights Reserved.
Compilation of daily Bible readings © Hodder & Stoughton Limited 1988. Published by Hodder & Stoughton Limited as the Bible in One Year.
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version Anglicised, Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 Biblica, formerly International Bible Society. Used by permission of Hodder & Stoughton Publishers, an Hachette UK company. All rights reserved. ‘NIV’ is a registered trademark of Biblica. UK trademark number 1448790.
Scripture quotations marked (AMP) taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)
Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message, copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.