“Jesus replied, ‘The most important commandment is this: “Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.”’” (Mark 12:29 NLT)
How do you measure love? If I asked you how much you loved your dog/cat/animal, how would you describe your love for it/them? How about ice cream? Your house? Car? Job? Career? The list of things we love can be very long, but what about the people you love? Your parents? Spouse? Children? Grandchildren? Friends at work? School? In your neighborhood? Again, the list can be very long?
How could you prove your love for any of those things or people? “Well, I feed my pets and take care of their needs.” “My spouse and family know I love them because I take care of their needs also – a place to live, food, internet service, new phones, etc.” There are essentially two primary ways we give expression to our love for virtually anything: time and money. We spend time with or doing what we love, and we spend money on/for what we love.
How about your love for God? Do you love Him? If you’re reading these words, you very likely profess a love relationship with God, or you love the person who coerced you into reading them.😊 How about this – how does God prove His love for you? He sent Jesus to illustrate how a person who loves God should live and act. He allowed His only, perfect Son to die in our place to pay the penalty for our sin.
After Jesus returned to heaven, He sent His Holy Spirit to fill, empower, and enable us to live a life worthy of being called “Christian” and He continues to provide everything we need to be everything He desires us to be. Tim Challies wrote: “Your love for God is limited by your knowledge of him. You can only love God as deeply as you know God.”
Knowledge of God implies time with God – reading His Word, discovering the meaning of the words we read, speaking with God about His attributes and how those attributes influence our understanding of His love for us, that gives us insight into how to love Him in return. It’s important for us to know that we will never “out love” God.
His love for us is eternal, having no beginning and no end. He IS love, so even in the act of creating us in our mother’s womb, He was demonstrating His great love for us. Even those who are murdered by abortion or are stillborn or for whatever reason die before they’re born, each one is tenderly and lovingly given eternal life and will one day meet their parents in heaven, if their parents know and love Jesus.
Another avenue of our love for God is our trust and our anticipation of His workings in and through our lives. Corky Calhoun wrote: “Christians generally lack any sense of anticipation of what God could do if we were unleashed in faith, and unashamed of Jesus.” Conversation with God, commonly referred to as prayer, ideally leads to greater trust, thus, greater anticipation of how He’s going to work powerfully in, through, and on our behalf.
James reminds us in 4:2b-3 “…Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong – you want only what will give you pleasure.”
Our love for God is reflected, not only in what we ask God to give us, but in what we ask Him to take away (i.e. – our sickness, disease, problems, etc.).
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 