1

R edeem er Bible Church

Unreserved Accountability to Christ. Undeserved Acceptance from Christ.

Loving God, Part Three:

Inflaming Our Love through Meditation
Selected Scriptures

Introduction
What is the Lord’s love for us like? Well, Ephesians 5 shows us that the
relationship that Christ has with the church is analogous to the relationship between a
husband and wife. Actually, Paul goes further and says that the relationship between
husband and wife was placed into creation in order to manifest the relationship between
Christ and the church that existed in the mind of God before time began. He says, “This
mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church” (Ephesians
5:32).

Nevertheless, it is fair for us to understand that Christ’s relationship to us, that

God’s relationship to his people is like that of a husband to a wife. Isaiah 62:5 says,
“And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, So your God will rejoice over you.” The
love that the Lord has for his people is love that is exuberant, full of joy and enthusiasm.
It is like the love of a husband, completely enamored of his beautiful bride on their
wedding day. The joyful anticipation of seeing my bride in her dress coming down the
isle to be released to my care was exhilarating. This is God’s love for us.

And since this is the love of God for us, what kind of response of love would be
appropriate to him? We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart,
soul, mind, and strength. But we may ask what that love for him ought to look like.
Some have suggested that the love we owe to God is nothing more than our obedience
to him; for, they say, love is not what you feel, but what you do. So they reason that all
God requires of us in our return of love to him is that we simply and I daresay coldly,
carry out our duty. After all 1 John 5:3 says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep
His commandments.”

Now on the surface this may make sense, but if we probe just a bit more deeply
we’ll find that it is wholly inadequate for describing the nature of the love we owe to
God. If God’s love for us is loaded with emotion, spontaneity, and exuberance, then it
seems to follow that ours should involve the same. “We love, because he first loved us”
(1 John 4:18). Thus our love is true love only insofar as it is analogous to his love. In
other words, whatever our love for God may entail, it certainly cannot entail anything
less than what God bestows upon us.

This, of course, is not to say that we only express our love for God through
our feelings and that our actions have nothing to do with it. On the contrary, what we
are saying is that both are equally necessary. For with Paul we must say, “If I give all

Loving God, Part 3:

Inflaming Our Love through Meditation © 1999, 2004 by R W Glenn
 2

my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not
have love, it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:3). We must affirm that though we
may perform profound acts of self-sacrifice on behalf of others, we can perform them
without love.

At the same time, you can see that Paul is not saying that we shouldn’t manifest
our love by giving our possessions to feed the poor, or by surrendering our bodies to be
burned. In fact, it is precisely because these can be expressions of love to Christ and
others that Paul’s argument has any power. He is saying that though these legitimately
appear to be supremely loving acts, we can perform them in such a way as to take the
love right out of them.

If love, then, is not the mere performance of duty, even the heroic performance of
duty, then what is it? What does Paul say? He says that love is not jealous, that love is
not provoked, that love does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth,
and that love hopes all things. He says that love entails our emotions! So although it is
true that love is more than feelings, it is not less than feelings either.

So if you feel things such as unholy jealousy and irritation, and take joy in
unrighteousness, then you are not manifesting biblical love. Or on the flip side, if you do
not feel things such as joy over the truth and hope in all things, then you are also failing
to manifest biblical love. And you’re failing to manifest biblical love no matter how many
selfless acts you may perform in devotion to God.

So you see, like God’s love for us, our love for him must have emotional content.
The Lord our God is rejoicing over us in love; how much more ought we to rejoice over
him in love? If our love for the Lord is all of duty and none of delight, then we do not
love him.

For if you really love something or someone, you delight in that something or
someone; you enjoy it. John Piper has written a little poem that captures this truth
memorably:

The soul is measured by its flights,

Some low and others high,
The heart is known by its delights,
And pleasures never lie.

Would you think I loved what I was eating if my facial expression looked as if the
food were disgusting? Would you think that I loved you if I didn’t seem happy in my
pastoral duties—if you came to me for help and I grudgingly offered assistance? No
way!

And not only does our love manifest itself in delight, but true love transforms all
duties on behalf of the beloved into delights. This is implied even in the verse that is
often cited to eradicate emotion from the biblical teaching on love. Listen to the whole
of 1 John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His
commandments are not burdensome.” Ah, there you have it! What is it that makes

Loving God, Part 3:

Inflaming Our Love through Meditation © 1999, 2004 by R W Glenn
 3

God’s commandments not burdensome? It is that we love him. It is our love for the
Lord which makes our duty a delight.

If, however, the demands of the Christian life have become very burdensome for
you, you need to ask yourself, “Where is the love?” You need to ask yourself if you
really love the Lord. If you are asked by someone you love, really love, to do
something, how do you commonly respond? Well, you probably say something like,
“My pleasure.” You don’t say, “My pain” or “My grief” or “My burden.” If you were to say
such a thing, the person would rightly have to question whether or not you loved them.
So if doing what God has called you to do is all of duty and none of delight, then the
Lord, too, would rightly question your love for him.

So I ask you: Do you love the Lord? Your answer to this question is crucial. For
the Apostle Paul says that if anyone does not love the Lord, he is to be accursed (1
Corinthians 16:22). What characterizes the Christian is that he has love for the Lord.
So if you are utterly bereft of love for God, if you have never felt affection for God, you
need to consider seriously whether or not the divine life is in you.

You see, the reason why you may not feel any affection for God is that you have
never come to believe in him. First Peter 1:8 says that one of the proofs of the
presence of genuine Christianity is that “though you have not seen Him, you love Him,
and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy
inexpressible and full of glory.” This text tells us that faith in him and love for him are
inextricably linked. The reason why we love a Christ we can’t see is because we have
faith in him.

At the very least this means that the single greatest impediment to loving the
Lord from the heart is that you have never exercised saving faith in him. And since
genuine faith cannot be created in the fallen human heart, the reality is that you need a
renewed heart in order to see him. Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is
born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God” (John 3:5). Jesus’
reference to water and the Spirit is a deliberate allusion to the language of Ezekiel
36:25-27:

"Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will
cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give
you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of
stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you
and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My
ordinances."

We need the cleansing and renewing power of the Holy Spirit if we are ever
going to believe in the Christ we do not see. We need new hearts if we are ever going
to love the Lord from the heart. For the unavoidable result of a changed heart is a new
relish for the things of God, a new capacity to apprehend the truth of God.

In his lecture to seminarians at The Master’s Seminary, Piper summarizes the

effects of the new birth beautifully,

Loving God, Part 3:

Inflaming Our Love through Meditation © 1999, 2004 by R W Glenn
 4

The sign of the new birth is a quickening: a heart opened and alive to the
reality, the substance, behind the exposition…The Holy Spirit must move
supernaturally into your heart and awaken the dead. The calluses of sin that are
covering the taste buds of the soul must be carved away and thrown from you so
that there is a supple, living flesh, that when it has been touched by the glories of
Christ it says, “Yes!”1

If you have never found holiness to be delightful, if God has never been revealed
to you as beautiful, if you have never seen the surpassing excellence of God, if you
have never been drawn to the Lord by bands of love such that the supreme God has
become nearer and dearer to you than anyone or anything else, then you probably have
never received the Holy Spirit. And since presence of the Holy Spirit is the evidence of
one’s conversion, then you probably have never trusted in Christ.

So there is an immediate application for you. You must be born again. And just
as you were absolutely reliant upon the Lord for your natural birth, so you are utterly
dependent upon the Lord for your supernatural birth. You must entrust yourself entirely
to him, begging him for the faith to see him as he really is.

And yet, the same could be said of those of us who already know the Lord, those
of us who have had the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. Though our problem is
not that we have never been born again; our problem is that like those who are utterly
blind to spiritual reality, we fail to see the Lord for who he really is. And so we are so
burdened by dryness and an almost indifferent attitude toward God. We find ourselves
failing to love him with deep and abiding affection. John Owen is right when he says
that “Many saints have no greater burden in their lives, than that their hearts do not
come clearly and fully up, constantly to delight and rejoice in God.”2

Of course, the question that we want answered in this connection is how. How
can our hearts come clearly and fully up, constantly to delight and rejoice in God? To
answer this, let me begin by suggesting what not to do—what to avoid in your quest for
deeper affection for God.

Three Pitfalls in the Pursuit of Love for God

First, be careful not to fall into the temptation of focusing on your emotions rather
than on God. Genuine emotions are spontaneous. We should not try to conjure up
them from within, stirring up the waters of our souls. Genuine emotions are those which
respond to correct apprehensions of the understanding.

When my father died in December of 2002, though I do not easily cry, I found
myself weeping, literally heaving and moaning with feelings of bereavement. I did not

1
From a message by John Piper entitled, “What Is Preaching?” delivered at The Master’s Seminary
on February 16, 1995.
2
John Owen, “Of Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Each Person Distinctly, in
Love, Grace, and Consolation; or, The Saints’ Fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
Unfolded,” in The Works of John Owen, Vol 2, edited by William Goold (Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth
Trust, 1997 reprint of the 1850-53 edition), 35-36.

Loving God, Part 3:

Inflaming Our Love through Meditation © 1999, 2004 by R W Glenn
 5

have to say to myself, “Bob, now would be a good time to feel sad. Cry!” I was
overwhelmed by the reality of my father’s passing and that reality produced in me
genuine feelings of grief that I naturally expressed through my tears and loud crying.

So the goal is not to get ourselves to be emotional, or as my dad used to say,

“...worked up into a lather.” Piper is again very helpful in this regard. Listen: “[I]f we
focus our attention on our own subjective experience of joy, we will most certainly be
frustrated, and God will not be honored. When you go to an art museum, you had
better attend to the paintings and not your pulse. Otherwise there will be no delight in
the beauty of the art.”3

If you focus your attention on your emotions, you will be distracted by them and
miss entirely what it was you hoped to see in God that would have naturally brought
about those emotions in the first place. Focus on the Lord and the emotions will follow.

Second, be careful not to fall into the temptation of focusing on others’ emotions
instead of on God. This simply compounds the problem. For in your experience there
will really be only two types of people: 1) those who appear more emotionally engaged
than you; 2) those who appear less emotionally engaged than you.

Those who see others as more engaged will be in a perpetual state of guilt, while
those who see others as less engaged will likely be harboring thoughts of spiritual
superiority. This kind of Christian practice is utterly sinful. We are responsible to view
ourselves as God made us, comparing ourselves with ourselves, as it were.

Remember, then, that your affectedness is subjective. I know how I am when I

am emotionally affected by something, but how I am may be different from how you are.
Focus on the Lord and the emotions will follow.

Third, be careful not to fall into the temptation of equating your affections with
your salvation. You must remember that simply because you have affection for God
does not mean you are a Christian. Listen to Jesus: “The one on whom seed was sown
on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it
with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or
persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away” (Matthew 13:20-21).

So simply because you have feelings for God does not necessarily mean that
you are a believer. There is more to being a Christian than affection for God. In the
true Christian there is additional evidence of a changed life. Now, as we have been
saying, one of the evidences of a changed life is affection for God, but it is not the only
evidence. If you are truly a Christian, the things of God will affect you; nevertheless,
you can be an unbeliever and have passion for God. This is why you need to be careful
not to equate your affection for God with your salvation.

3
John Piper, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 1986,
1996), 234.

Loving God, Part 3:

Inflaming Our Love through Meditation © 1999, 2004 by R W Glenn
 6

So then, three warnings: (1) do not focus on your emotions rather than God; (2)
do not focus on others’ emotions rather than on God; and (3) do not equate your
affection with your salvation. Be very concerned if it is entirely absent, but do not cease
to work out your salvation simply because it’s there.

I think I’ve sufficiently warned you. Now let’s begin to see how we as Christians
can biblically implement loving God from our hearts.

Loving God Is an Expression of Faith

Turn over to 1 Peter 1:8:

And though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not
see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and
full of glory.

We love a Christ we cannot see and have never seen. More than that, though
we do not see him now, we believe in him. In other words, though we do not see
him with the eyes of our head. We see him with the eyes of faith. Thus, like every
aspect of the Christian life, loving the Lord is loving him by faith, which is the conviction
of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1). What this means, then, is that at the root of our
failure to love the Lord is a lack of faith in him.

So then, whatever strategy we adopt for cultivating our love relationship with the
Lord must in some way address our hearts at the level of our faith. For when we truly
believe what the Scripture says about the Lord and all he is for us in Jesus Christ, we
will find him completely irresistible. He is far too beautiful and glorious and majestic and
powerful and lovely and compassionate and gracious and patient and overflowing with
affection and love for us to be resisted.

So then, if faith is what we need, what is the biblical recipe for strengthening our
faith? The answer is very simple. It is essential that we employ what have traditionally
been called “the means of grace.” Here is a very simple, but accurate definition of the
means of grace: “The means of grace are any activities within the fellowship of the
church that God uses to give more grace to Christians.”4 In other words, the Lord has
designed to bless his people through specific means. We need to use these means
otherwise we will not experience the ends for which they were designed.

Perhaps you are struggling to understand what “means” means. Let me illustrate
it like this: let’s say that God has designed to bless us by providing us with fish for
dinner. Furthermore, let’s say that God has said that in order to get the fish with which
he wants to bless us, we need to set the dinner table, seat the entire family, bless the
meal, and count to ten. This, he says, is the only way we can be blessed with our fish
dinner. This is what we mean by “means.” The means are the activities that God has
commanded for us to perform in order to bless us with what he has promised.

4
Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine (Grand Rapids, MI:
Zondervan, 1994), 950, italics omitted.

Loving God, Part 3:

Inflaming Our Love through Meditation © 1999, 2004 by R W Glenn
 7

Of course, God could have chosen to bless us with a fish dinner apart from us
doing anything—using no means at all. He could have created the fish right in our
stomachs. But this is not how God has designed our spiritual growth. He has set things
up so that we must employ his means in order to experience his ends. We must set the
table, gather the family, pray and count to ten, if we are going to have fish for dinner, so
to speak.

Now there are many Christian activities that the Lord has ordained as means to
bless us with growth in the Christian life. For our purposes, I’d like to address four
broad categories: (1) meditation; (2) prayer; (3) fellowship; and (4) fasting. If you want
to grow in faith; if you want to grow in your capacity to see and therefore to love God,
then you need to attend to meditation, prayer, fellowship, and fasting. This morning we
begin with meditation.

Meditation
Meditation is a key discipline of the Christian life. Of course, it is not the kind of
meditation that is often proffered in the context of today’s flourishing New Age
spirituality. The meditation that pleases the Lord is meditation that has revelational
content. In other words, we need to set our minds to musing upon the truth about what
God has made, what he has done, and who he is. True meditation is not musing on a
word with no meaning, like so many mantras. Meditation is a mental reiteration and
even an oral recitation of the truth. Thus the Scriptures must figure prominently in all
our meditation.

General Revelation
Turn to Psalm 19:1-6:

The heavens are telling of the glory of God;

And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
Day to day pours forth speech,
And night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words;
Their voice is not heard.
Their line has gone out through all the earth,
And their utterances to the end of the world.
In them He has placed a tent for the sun,
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber;
It rejoices as a strong man to run his course.
Its rising is from one end of the heavens,
And its circuit to the other end of them;
And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

David begins with what God has made. Look at verse 1: The heavens are
telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.
This really sums what he says through verse 6. The creation tells us about the Lord.
Romans 1:20 says that “since the creation of the world his invisible attributes, his
eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through
what has been made.”

Loving God, Part 3:

Inflaming Our Love through Meditation © 1999, 2004 by R W Glenn
 8

Though I have never been to the Grand Canyon, everyone who has ever been
there has been stupefied with their first gaze. It is utterly breathtaking. Now, you don’t
need to go to the Grand Canyon to have such an experience. Let your mind dwell on
the magnificence of the creation all around you.

Go outside. Look at the trees, the sky, the birds, the bugs, smell the air, listen to
the sounds of God’s creation. Go out at night and look at the stars and the moon.
Stare at them. Infer from all that you see, day and night, something of who he is. And it
will leave you even more speechless. If our God made all this—made it—what kind of
God do we serve? If you do this, don’t you think you’ll feel something for him, that your
emotions will be affected?

And don’t stop there. Remember that the Lord not only created water, earth, and
sky, but he also created you and me. If you have children, look at them. I mean really
look at them. Inspect them and wonder at the magnificence of God’s handiwork.

This is our God. He made us. Look at your own eyes in the mirror. Think about
how they work. Think about how sophisticated the human body really is. Think about
all that you do unconsciously—and yet can do some of those very things consciously,
like your breathing and blinking and swallowing and so many other things.

We are incredible. Pinch yourself—you’re here! And if our God made us—I
mean made us—what kind of God do we serve? Wow! Words cannot even fathom the
magnificence of our God. Doesn’t his creative power endear you to him? Doesn’t
reflecting on what he has made even endear you to him right now?

And don’t stop there, either. The Lord has made the creation for us. Acts 14:16-
17 says, “In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own way;
and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you
rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”

And Jesus says, “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes
His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the
unrighteous” (Matthew 5:44-45). God’s loving care is manifested for us in that we plant
and water and yield fruit from the ground. The creation (even in its fallen state) works to
our advantage. God loves us! And the creation testifies to this reality again and again.

Let’s keep going. It is not simply that our creative God has made us; it’s that he
has made us to be creative as well. So set your mind to reflect on all of the
accomplishments of men, in music, art, medicine, botany, literature. We have created
technology to take men to the moon and send probes to Mars.

And set you mind to reflect on what mankind has developed even on a smaller
scale. Reflect on your microwave, your personal computer, the structure of your home,
your car, even your toilet. We made this. But our making of this was and continues to
be utterly dependent upon the providence of God. If our God made us to make this,

Loving God, Part 3:

Inflaming Our Love through Meditation © 1999, 2004 by R W Glenn
 9

what kind of God do we serve? He is amazing. He is worthy of our praise. He is

worthy of our devotion.

Now with all that we’ve said, get this—here’s the real “mindblow”: what he has
made only dimly reflects who he is. Several clichés are appropriate here: the creation is
a drop in the bucket, it is a thimble full of all there is to him; it is only the tip of the
iceberg. This is important to know if our meditation on what he has made is to be most
effective. As we meditate on what is all around us, we need to engage in imaginative
comparison. We need to say, “How much more then, God.” Isn’t this how Jesus helps
us to understand his Father? Matthew 7:11 says, “If you then, being evil, know how to
give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give
what is good to those who ask Him!”

We need to do this with all he has made and all of his creative blessings in our
lives. We need to take what we see, multiply it by 10 to the millionth power, and say,
“How much more then, God. How much more then, God!”

Our problem is that we too often stop with creation. We observe something, it
takes our breath away, we say, “Wow!” and then we move on. This is not what God
intends. This is why this final step in our mediation on creation is so important. If we
fail to relate the creation to the Creator, rather than being endeared to him, we will be
endeared only to what he has made. Rather than loving the reality we will love the
reflection. We will love the gift and not the giver. And we will have committed the
gravest of injustices. As Augustine has said, “The good which you love is from him. But
only as it is related to him [is it] good and sweet. Otherwise it will justly become bitter;
for all that comes from him is unjustly loved if he has been abandoned.”5

So then, we must begin with contemplating creation, and from there we must
acknowledge that we have only touched the hem of the garment. His magnificence is
utterly stupendous. It defies our comprehension. No wonder the Bible says that he
dwells in unapproachable light. Praise him that he has condescended to manifest even
a glimmer of that light in the wonders of creation. Praise the Lord!

And yet God’s revelation of himself is not limited to what he has made. In
addition to this general revelation of himself, he has chosen to reveal himself in the
pages of Scripture. Look at Psalm 19:7-11:

The law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the soul;

The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart;
The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever;
The judgments of the LORD are true; they are righteous altogether.
They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold;
Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them Your servant is warned;

5
Saint Augustine, Confessions IV.xii (18), trans by Henry Chadwick (London: Oxford University
Press, 1991), 63-34.

Loving God, Part 3:

Inflaming Our Love through Meditation © 1999, 2004 by R W Glenn
 10

In keeping them there is great reward.

Special Revelation
And what do we learn from Scripture about God? Well, everything that we
couldn’t learn through the created order along with the significance of all his works. The
Scriptures are rich beyond comparison for their revelational value. What a deposit!

Psalm 19 tells us that God’s word is perfect, sure, right, pure, clean, and true. It
tells us that it restores the soul, makes the simple wise, brings joy to the heart,
enlightens the eyes, endures forever, and produces comprehensive righteousness for
the one who complies with what it says. No wonder David says what he does in verse
10: “They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold; Sweeter also than
honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.” And no wonder David says over and over
again in Psalm 119 that he takes delight in the law of the Lord.

Ultimate Revelation
Add to this that there is a revelation of God that far surpasses even the revelation
of God in Scripture. It is described for us in Hebrews 1:1-2: “God, after He spoke long
ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days
has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also
He made the world.” It is in Christ Jesus that God has reveled himself especially. And
therefore it is upon Christ Jesus that we must set our minds to meditate.

And yet, this cannot be done without the Scriptures. We need the witness of
Scripture to inform our minds as to the nature, power, work, majesty, humility, and
beauty of our Savior. The Scriptures teach us that our Lord Jesus is lovely beyond
comparison. We need to meditate on the loveliness and beauty of God as it has been
revealed in Jesus. Listen to what John Owen says about the loveliness of Christ: Christ
is…

Lovely in his person,—in the glorious all-sufficiency of his Deity, gracious

purity and holiness of his humanity, authority and majesty, love and power.
Lovely in his birth and incarnation; when he was rich, for our sakes
becoming poor,—taking part of flesh and blood, because we partook of the
same; being made of a woman, that for us he might be made under the law, even
for our sakes.
Lovely in the whole course of his life, and the more than angelical
holiness and obedience which, in the depth of poverty and persecution, he
exercised therein;—doing good, receiving evil; blessing, and being cursed,
reviled, reproached, all his days.
Lovely in his death; yea, therein most lovely to sinners;—never more
glorious and desirable than when he came broken, dead, from the cross.
Then…he carried all our sins into a land of forgetfulness; then…he made peace
and reconciliation for us; then…he procured life and immortality for us.
Lovely in his whole employment, in his great undertaking,—in his life,
death, resurrection, ascension; being a mediator between God and us, to recover
the glory of God’s justice, and to save our souls,—to bring us to an enjoyment of
God, who were set at such an infinite distance from him by sin.
Lovely in the glory and majesty wherewith he is crowned. Now he is set
down at the right hand of the Majesty on high; where, though he be terrible to his

Loving God, Part 3:

Inflaming Our Love through Meditation © 1999, 2004 by R W Glenn
 11

enemies, yet he is full of mercy, love, and compassion, towards his beloved
ones.
Lovely in the supplies of grace and consolations, in all the dispensations
of his Holy Spirit, whereof his saints are made partakers.
Lovely in all the tender care, power, and wisdom, which he exercises in
protection, safe-guarding, and delivery of his church and people, in the midst of
all the oppositions and persecutions [to which] they are exposed.
Lovely in all his ordinances, and the whole of that spiritually glorious
worship which he hath appointed to his people, whereby they draw nigh and
have communion with him and his Father.
Lovely and glorious in the vengeance he [takes], and will finally execute,
upon the stubborn enemies of himself and his people.
Lovely in the pardon he hath purchased and [dispenses],—in the
reconciliation he [has] established,—in the grace he communicates,—in the
consolations he [administers],—in the peace and joy he gives his saints,—in his
assured preservation of them unto glory.
What shall I say? there is no end of his excellencies and desirableness;—
“He is altogether lovely. This is our beloved, and this is our friend, O daughters
of Jerusalem.”6

And as Owen has said earlier, it is when we see the loveliness of God that
we will be affectionately drawn to him: “God must be revealed unto us as lovely and
desirable, as a fit and suitable object unto the soul to set up its rest upon, before we can
bear any love to him. The saints (in this sense) do not love God for nothing, but for that
excellency, loveliness, and desirableness that is in him.”7

Conclusion
Do you see how excellent and lovely and desirable our Lord really is? Set your
mind on the things of God. Meditate on all he has made, what he has done, and all he
is for us in Christ and you will find yourself overflowing with love for him. In fact, you will
have so much affection and passion for him that you will be at a loss how even to
express it. You will come to the public worship bursting at the seams!

But meditation takes time. Meditation on God’s revelation is not a microwavable

discipline. This is hard for us. We are not a very contemplative culture. We want what
we want yesterday. By its very nature, however, meditation is a brick oven kind of
discipline. Contemplation takes time. And without contemplation of the divine
perfections our faith in him will not be strengthened. And if our faith in him is not
strengthened than we will feel very dry in our Christian lives.

So you need to make time for meditation. Pick a place and a time and be faithful
to meditate on the word and works of the Lord.

Second Timothy 2:8 says, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead,
descendant of David, according to my gospel.” If we do not remember the Lord, if we
do not deliberately make the effort to keep him on our minds, we will not cultivate love
for him in our hearts. It is really that simple. There is no magic formula. If you want to
6
Owen, “Communion with God,” 77-78, italics in original.
7
Ibid., 29.

Loving God, Part 3:

Inflaming Our Love through Meditation © 1999, 2004 by R W Glenn
 12

be stimulated in your love for the Lord, you need to see him—you need to see him with
the eyes of faith in the creation, in the revelation of Scripture, and especially in the
revelation of Jesus Christ.

So this morning I end with a prayer for us to become a contemplative, meditative

people—that we would be a people who continually fixes our eyes on Jesus so that our
love for him would overflow to the glory of God.

Redeemer Bible Church

16205 Highway 7
Minnetonka, MN 55345
Office: 952.935.2425
Fax: 952.938.8299
info@redeemerbiblechurch.com
www.redeemerbiblechurch.com
www.solidfoodmedia.com

Loving God, Part 3:

Inflaming Our Love through Meditation © 1999, 2004 by R W Glenn