The Discipline of Love (1)

The essence of the Christian life is our love relationship with God rather than following a list of rules. A disciple is a follower of the Person of Jesus, who wants to be as close as possible to Him. This does involve discipline. There are important disciplines that are part of being a disciple, like Bible reading and having a devotional time with God every day, with praise, prayer and confession, being faithful in Church, and finding ways to serve God and people. But we do not do them for their own sake but as expressions of our love for the Lord, in order to be close to Jesus and glorify Him. We are precious to the Lord. Above all, He wants our heart. He wants us to give Him our heart, which starts by opening (the ears of) our heart to Him, to receive His words of love and His grace to us, for our ears are the receivers of our heart (Isaiah 55:1-3). Then as He fills us with Himself (His life and love), He takes possession of our hearts by his Spirit (Presence), and our hearts become fully His, so that we then love Him with all our heart.