Embrace Calling — Living to Please Him
Living Word
Revelation 2:4 — “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.”
2 Corinthians 5:9 — “So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.”
Philippians 1:21 — “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
First Love
Picture again the robot in our parable: it speaks mechanically, “May I hug you?” The child, delighted, embraces it again and again. But what of us, who are truly alive? If a lifeless toy can stir affection, how much more should redeemed hearts—awakened by grace—overflow in love for the living God? Our calling is not survival or performance but devotion: to run to Him with the eagerness of a child who longs for the Father’s embrace.
Historical Anchor
This devotion was visible in the earliest communities of believers. The Didache, an early Christian manual of teaching, describes followers of Christ who gathered daily for prayer and broke bread with simplicity and joy. They lived not for performance but for presence. The apostles modeled this love: John leaning on Jesus’ breast (John 13:23), Peter confessing, “Lord, you know that I love you” (John 21:17), Paul declaring his life’s aim was to please Christ in all things. They were not mechanical servants programmed to obey but transformed hearts set aflame by love.
Wisdom Echoes
“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” — John Piper
“To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek Him the greatest adventure; to find Him, the greatest human achievement.” — Monica, mother of Augustine (remembered in tradition)
Summary Truth
The first cry of a new heart is love. God does not desire robotic obedience or cold repetition but the warmth of affection from children who delight in Him. When we live to please the Lord, life takes on holy purpose. Our identity shifts from imitation to intimacy, from mechanical motion to Spirit-filled devotion.
Present Challenge
Yet many today reduce faith to performance: worship as entertainment, prayer as obligation, obedience as transaction. In such moments, love grows cold, and words become robotic. To recover our first love, the Church must repent of hollow repetition and rekindle intimacy. The Spirit Himself restores warmth, enabling us to cry out not with mechanical voices but with passion: “Abba, Father!”
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