Basically it's an addiction to a substitute, because I can't stand the pain of what's really going on inside me, of feeling so terribly unloved. That's at the core of it all. It is at the core of it all, so you can tell someone to have balance in their life but if they've got a driving need to be loved and they think it's going to be in their work, they'll never stop working like crazy. Long after they've just ruined everything around them, and they're still driven by work, they still can't see what they're doing - like a person drinking can't see what they're doing. A person gambling can't see what they're doing, until their world falls apart, that it's a substitute for the reality of God's love in a personal relationship leading to a balance in life because you're not driven anymore. Getting the idea? You've gone all quiet - I know I'm talking to someone next to you.
Okay, so how can I keep myself in the love of God? Let me just give you a few practical things because we need to just get some simple keys, how can I keep myself in the love of God. Well you notice that in Jude 20, the whole environment for keeping yourself in the love of God, is an environment of prayer. Prayer is the key factor in it. Notice praying in the Holy Ghost, building up yourself in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. Prayer in the Holy Ghost is to energise our spirit man, but there's some things we also need to do. Here's number one. Number one is we need to constantly expect and anticipate and welcome God's mercy and forgiveness, looking for the mercy of God, looking for it, expecting it. Now a lot of people when they've failed don't expect God, they think they don't deserve it see? I don't deserve that mercy. Well God gives it to you, whether you deserve it or not see, so God is wanting you to believe, and if you blow it and fall over quickly get up, quickly come back, expect mercy, get it over and done with, move on, see?
So if I want to keep myself in the love of God, I've got to deal with failures and mistakes and errors, and just humbly admit they're there, confess them to the Lord, put it right and then move on. Don't beat yourself up for the lacks and failures. Stop doing that. That's not how you keep yourself in the love of God, beating yourself up all the time because there's this and that wrong with you. Just get over it, because God has, at the cross in Calvary, see. So the second thing is we need to meditate in the love of God, need to take time to allow your thoughts and your mind to centre around and focus on the person of God and how much He loves you, so you need to picture it in a very real way. Use your spiritual imagination and allow your life to meditate on scriptures until your mind - see what your mind meditates on, you'll begin to become aware of and you'll begin to feel. Thoughts and feelings are very closely connected. If we talk about food right now, and I described some food to you, very soon you'll start to feel incredibly hungry. That's all you'll be able to think about, because as your mind fills with thoughts and they become like pictures in you, then emotions start to come and even your body starts to respond.
So meditation, consciously using my imagination to dwell on, embrace and see the love of God, very tangibly the person of Jesus Christ welcoming me, loving me and to meditate on that, to see it over and over, to imagine how it feels. If you just ponder the truth of it, and do it regularly - now you only have to do it just in moments through the day. Take a minute break and stop, just quieten down, and just take a moment to become still inside, become conscious God is with me. Now initially that may take some discipline, because many minds are so busy, but it's a discipline to train your inner life, to just refocus and centre back on the love of God, the person of Jesus Christ. See, so you meditate, you repeat that over and over so it constantly goes back, Jesus is my source. Go back to become conscious, I'm loved, He values me, thank You Lord. Begin to dwell in that, I start to become aware of His presence again.