Choose Love
Authors: Stormie Omartian
HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS
EUGENE, OREGON
Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Verses marked
NIV
are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Cover by Harvest House Publishers, Inc., Eugene, Oregon
Back cover author photo © Michael Gomez Photography
Italics in quoted Scriptures indicate emphasis added by the author.
CHOOSE LOVE
Copyright © 2014 by Stormie Omartian
Published by Harvest House Publishers
Eugene, Oregon 97402
www.harvesthousepublishers.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Omartian, Stormie.
Choose love / Stormie Omartian.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-7369-5897-4 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-7369-5898-1 (eBook)
1. God (Christianity)—Love. 2. God (Christianity)—Worship and love. 3. Love—Religious aspects—Christianity. I. Title.
BT140.O48 2014
231'.6—dc23
2014017271
All rights reserved.
No part of this electronic publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, digital, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The authorized purchaser has been granted a nontransferable, nonexclusive, and noncommercial right to access and view this electronic publication, and purchaser agrees to do so only in accordance with the terms of use under which it was purchased or transmitted. Participation in or encouragement of piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of author’s and publisher’s rights is strictly prohibited.
“You shall love the L
ORD
your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with your entire mind, and with all your strength.” This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these.
M
ARK
12:30-31
Contents
First Choice:
Choose to Receive God’s Love for You
1. See Yourself the Way God Sees You
2. Understand Who God Really Is
3. Receive All God Has for You
4. Read God’s Love Letter to You
5. Accept God’s Grace and Mercy
6. Recognize the Ways God Loves You
7. Know What God’s Love Will Do in Your Life
Second Choice:
Choose to Express Your Love for God
8. Love Who He Is Wholeheartedly
9. Live His Way Uncompromisingly
10. Learn to Worship Him Lavishly
11. Look for Ways to Trust Him Completely
12. Lean on His Wisdom Enthusiastically
13. Leave the World of His Enemy Entirely
14. Long for His Will and His Presence Continuously
Third Choice:
Choose to Love Others in a Way That Pleases God
15. Is Consistently Loving Others Really Possible?
16. What if I Can’t Always Be Patient and Kind?
17. In What Ways Do I Reveal a Lack of Love?
18. How Will Others Know I Am God’s?
19. Isn’t It Selfish to Learn to Love Myself?
20. What If I’m Unable to Bear, Believe, Hope, and Endure All Things?
21. How Can I Show Love in Every Situation?
Other Books in the Choose Love Collection
Choose to Receive God’s Love for You
See Yourself the Way God Sees You
I
will never forget the day I first looked in one of those lighted magnifying mirrors. You know, the ones you can buy for your bathroom counter? They come in different levels of magnification. The one I bought was five times magnification because I needed to see certain things on my face and skin more clearly for the sake of good grooming.
I set it up, turned on the light, looked in the mirror, and nearly frightened myself to death.
I am warning you now that this is not for the faint of heart and you must prepare yourself in advance. First of all, be assured
before
you look in it that no one on earth sees you the way the mirror is reflecting you, with every pore and blemish enlarged; every brown sunspot, broken capillary, wrinkle, and line enhanced; and each imperfection—many of which you never even knew were there—illuminated.
I have since recovered from that initial shock, but it took a while. And as time goes on there is more to see, so it actually doesn’t become an increasingly pleasant experience. It’s just something you know you have to do and you are more prepared to endure it.
Seeing yourself the way
God
sees you is like looking into a giant magnifying mirror of your entire being. But He sees you from the perspective of all He made you to be. He sees all the gifts, purpose, and potential in you, having been put there by the One who not only thought about you
before
you were born but had a plan for your life.
We too often see only the negative things in ourselves. We painfully observe where we are weak, lacking, or failing. God sees all that too, but He doesn’t consider it all bad.
For example, God sees your
weakness
as an opportunity for you to trust Him to be strong in you. Your weakness surrendered to God enables you to gain strength from Him beyond anything you could ever have without Him.
God sees whatever you
lack
as a possibility that you will turn to Him and declare your dependence on Him so He can supply all your needs.
God sees your
failure
as an invitation for you to walk closely with Him, so He can empower you to accomplish what you couldn’t begin to do on your own.
If you are not certain about all of this, then I invite you to seek God beyond what you ever have before and come to know Him better. The better you know who God really is, the more you will recognize how much you need Him. And needing Him is always a good thing.