We know that God loves us and we should love him too. A relationship won't stand unless both parties love each other and put effort into the relationship. We are privileged to be the adopted children of the one true God and there are lots of reasons why we should love him. Jesus made a way for us to have a relationship with god, just think of that for a moment, we can have a personal relationship with the one who formed us and knows us better than we know ourselves, yet still chooses to love us and wants us in his family. what an awesome thought! Don't you agree that god deserves our love and adoration?
God commands us to love him with all our heart soul mind and strength.
Deuteronomy 11:1
Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements,
his decrees, his laws and his commands always.
God wants us to love him with all that we are, our thoughts, our actions, our feelings, and everything that makes us who we are:
Deuteronomy 6:5
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
So how do we love God?
It is hard to love someone we have never seen. I have a few ideas that I would like to share with you on this topic:
1. The Holy spirit helps us:
2 Thessalonians 3:5
May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love
and Christ's perseverance.
God knew it would not be easy for us to love him wholeheartedly so he gives us the helper, the holy spirit.
2. We should pray to god that he will help us to love him:
Philippians 1:9
And this is my prayer:
that your love may abound more and more
in knowledge and depth of insight,
God will help us to love him if we are serious about seeking him. The more we know God, the more we will love him. We get to know him as we study his word and as we communicate with him in prayer. We love him even if
we haven't seen him, and we are blessed:
1 Peter 1:8
Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,
3. We must seek him:
Song of Songs 3:2
I will get up now and go about the city,
through its streets and squares;
I will search for the one my heart loves.
We must seek him, we must draw near to him and study his word and meditate on it's truths, we must spend time in prayer seeking his will for our lives. Part of his will for us is that we love him so he will help us to do that but he wants to be the most important thing in our lives and our top priority.
4. Knowing that God loves us helps us to love him in return:
1 john 4:19
We love because he first loved us.
5. As we experience him at work in our lives our love for him grows:
Psalms 116:1
I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.
6. I believe the more time we spend with someone the more we will know them, even God, who is not physically here on earth. He reveals himself to us as we seek him, as we follow him and let him have his way in our lives, as we talk to him and share with him our thoughts and feelings.
7. Our love for god is perfected in obedience:
John 14:15
"If you love me, you will obey what I command.
God wants us to show that we love him by what we do. Will we do our own thing or will we do what God wants us to do?
8. We must love him more than anyone or anything else;
Matthew 10:37
"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me;
anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
That doesn't mean that Jesus wants us to forget about our families and not love them, it just means he wants to be our top priority, the one who is most important to us.
I have a few more points to share about loving God:
A. When we begin to love God we can expect that we will change in some ways, such as:
1. we will hate sin:
Psalms 97:10
Let those who love the Lord hate evil,
for he guards the lives of his faithful ones
and delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
2. We will love our brothers and sisters more:
1 john 5:1
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
3. We will want to please God by obeying him:
1 john 5:3
This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
B. There are promises in his word for those who love God:
Deuteronomy 11:13-15:
So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today--to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul--then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain,
new wine and oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.
James 1:12
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those
who love him.
C. God knows the ones who love him:
1 Corinthians 8:3
But the man who loves God is known by God. he protects them:
psalm 145:20
The Lord watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.
psalms 91:14
"Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
d. God shows mercy to those who love him:
Exodus 20:6
but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
e. We should pray that we and other members of god's family may grow in our love for god:
2 Thessalonians 3:5
May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love
and Christ's perseverance.
F. We should beware that we don't lose our love for God:
Revelation 2:4-5
Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.
Jesus was criticising the people of the Ephesian church because their first love towards him had faded. We should be careful that doesn't happen to us as well. You know how it is when you first fall in love with someone, how that person is always in your thoughts and you want to talk about them all the time, how you would do almost anything to please them and you just wanted to make them happy
and spend as much time with them as possible?
It should be like that with God too
although the love we feel for God is different for that we feel for a human love, it is more the love of a child to their father, with respect and adoration and gratitude, the principle is the same. When we first get saved we are usually on fire for God, eager to spend time with him each day and learn more about him and study his word,
doing the things he wants us to do. Then that first love faded a bit
and it gradually decreased from there. Till we found ourselves only coming to Church out of duty
and reading the bible because we need to; and our prayers are cold and empty.
We need to remember how it was when our love for god was strong and try to live that way again. of course God will help us do that.
Conclusion:
We can see from what we have studied that loving God is very important
and it is something we need to do, so let us pray that god will help us love him more and show us how we can, helping us to fulfill the commandment to love him with all we are.
Let me leave you with:
a. a final warning from Revelation chapter 2, where Jesus rebuked the people for having lost their first love for him:
Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its
place.
[Revelation 2:5]
Let's make loving God a priority in our lives.
and.
B. I will end with a promise that god gives to those of us who love him and call on him in prayer:
Psalms 91:14-15:
"Because he loves me," says the LORD,
"I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call upon me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will I satisfy him
and show him my salvation."
Here are a few questions you may want to prayerfully ponder. this is between you and god and is only a suggestion.
Questions:
1 How can we show our love for God?
2. what do you think Jesus meant by "first love?"
3. how can we keep our first love for Jesus strong?
4. Is loving God a priority in your life?
Thanks for reading this, may God bless you!
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