Worshipful Energy

Worshipful Energy

I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.

2 Corinthians 11:27

IN WORD If ever someone loved God with all his strength, it was Paul. The energy that he expended for the sake of his King was not only admirable, it was supernatural. Though confessing genuine weakness (v. 29), he also claimed God’s strength (12:9-10). Toward the end of his ministry, Paul could tell Timothy that he was being “poured out” (2 Timothy 4:6). Like all of us, he was being spent on his work and his relationships. Unlike many of us, all his work and relationships revolved around Christ.

Paul demonstrated what it means to love God with the kind of boldness, courage, and physical endurance that the great commandment back in Deuteronomy 6:5 (and repeated by Jesus in Mark 12:30) urged. And we can see such love in an even greater example. Jesus endured the Cross—boldly in His body and His willful courage—for the sake of the Father and for the sake of His Father’s chosen children. Love was poured out from the Cross in the form of divine blood. That’s what it means to love God with all one’s strength.

IN DEED It’s a hard act to follow, isn’t it? But we’ve been called to follow it anyway. To love God with all our strength, we are to spend our energy for Him, suffer discomfort for Him, and endure resistance for Him. It’s a high and holy calling, and we’re often afraid of it.

That’s where the supernatural strength of God comes in. Our fear makes us weak, keeping us from loving God with all of our strength. God, who knows our frailties, tells us to follow the example of Paul: to rejoice in our weaknesses and rely on God’s strength.

Don’t be afraid to hunger or thirst for God. Don’t shy away from labor and fatigue. Such gifts honor the God you serve. They are a form of worship. They are an act of love.

Love for God is ecstatic, making us go out from ourselves. It does not allow the lover to belong any more to himself, but only to the Beloved.

—DIONYSIOS THE AREOPAGITE