Do You Love Your Jesus?

Do you love your Jesus?

I remember singing this song when I was in a youth group and hearing my parents singing this song during their men and women’s bible study groups. You probably know the song as well: “Deep deep oh deep down down deep down in my heart, deep deep oh deep down down deep down in my heart, do you love your Jesus, deep down in your heart? Yes, I love my Jesus deep down in my heart.” I also remember the joy that I felt while singing this song with my friends and that I found when the adult Christians singing the song. Do you love your Jesus? Does loving Jesus make you smile?

I love our triune God. I love the Son who was incarnated on the flesh to give himself as the atonement for our sins and suffering. I love the Holy Spirit who lives in us and is always with us. I love the Father who carries out his special redemptive operations throughout our lives. I am so grateful that I find my broken identity restored into a glorious identity as a child of the most high God, my broken body restored into a glorious body that will be fully manifested in the last day, and my broken relationship with people restored into different parts of the glorious body of Jesus Christ. Without the grace of our triune God, we will be trapped in the eternal cycle of sin and death and receive nothing but divine condemnation and wrath, for that is what we sinners deserve.

You see, I can confess my love for him in this way, not because I am a special and faithful believer, but because God moved my heart to love him. About thirteen years ago, there was a time when I could not feel this love for God. I felt gratitude and joy for his grace and sacrifice and wanted to confess my love for him, but I could not sense it and began feeling guilt and frustration for not having the love for him. When I forced myself to say, “I love you God,” I was so uncomfortable to say it that I felt like a hypocrite and liar. I began praying to God, “I want to love you. Please help me to love you with all my heart, strength, and spirit.” That was my prayer for a long time, and now, I can confidently proclaim that I love Jesus, even though my imperfect love is still in the process of completion. And, that is still my prayer.

Do you love your Jesus for who he is and for giving himself as fully human and divine, so that whoever believes in him may receive eternal life and enjoy in the felicity of the fellowship with the Father, Son, and Spirit? Do you have the joy of loving him? Because of our sinful nature and weakness, we need his help to love him with all our hearts, strengths, and spirits. I hope that we can pray to God to ignite our love for him and restore our joy of loving him regardless of our current situations during this time of celebrating the earthly birth of Jesus the Christ, our God and King. Merry Christmas!