How to love God |
Part 1 After the Lords correction on how I loved Him, I began to pray and ask questions. "How do I love you with my mind and soul Lord"? I realized that the first thing to do was to define love as the bible teaches it so I took some time and really solidified what love is in my understanding. Immediately I began to see that my ignorance and the church’s ignorance on this topic was glaringly obvious. Without going in to exhaustive word studies, hermeneutics and exegesis I will just rely on the printed text. You see it is very simple. God is love. 1 John 4:8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. We see in Romans that He has put inside us everything we need to properly respond to Him with love. He has put His own nature, His own character, His own being inside us, giving us every opportunity and every necessary tool to connect with Him in intimate relationship. Romans 5:5 5And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. This love that He has put inside us has many qualities and characteristics, which is expressed in 1 Corinthians 13, the famous “love chapter”. But you will notice that the chief characteristic of love is giving. John 3:16 16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. You see, love is not merely a feeling or an emotion, although it will produce both. Love is a commitment of devotion that is directed by our will. Love is an action word. Not just a noun but also a verb. Love does, love doesn’t just say. Love invests. Love thinks of giving first before any thought of receiving. So now we need realized that to love God with the mind and soul, we have to figure out how to give those parts of ourselves to Him. ….more to come. |