How Do You Love God?
“We love, because He first loved us.”
1 John 4:19
When you say you love God, what does that actually mean? You cannot see God. You cannot touch God and give Him a hug. You cannot give Him a physical present. You cannot physically hear Him talking to you. So, how do you show Him you love Him?
This is something I have given a lot of thought to. There are times in my life that I feel I put others on the back burner because I’m only focused on showing God love. Then there are times when I neglect my relationship with God because I’m solely focused on people in my life. How do I balance love? Is it possible to show love to God and others at the same time? We always say our love for God comes before anyone and everything. We teach our children this. We try our hardest to show it to God through our relationship with Him; through our quiet time, prayer life, morals, church attendance, and sacrifice. Is that enough? Is that what God desires from us.
I have come to the conclusion that God wants more from us. I came across these scriptures and they hit me like a ton of bricks.
“We love, because He first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar, for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen is not able to love God whom he has not seen.” 1 John 4:19-20
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us.” 1 John 4:11-12
God expects complete love out of us. He expects us to build a relationship with Him and nurture that relationship but to also love one another. I’m not just talking about loving our family and friends; I’m talking about loving all of God’s people. That is the part that can get difficult. It is really easy to say we love God when it doesn’t cost us anything, when all we have to do is attend church, read our Bibles, pray, and love our family and friends. But, when we branch out past that, it becomes harder. We cannot truly love God without branching out and loving all in His image. Before we can know how to do that, we must know exactly what love is.
The dictionary defines “love” as a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person, a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend. This is the love we have for people we personally know. This describes our feelings for family and close friends. It’s hard to have these feelings for people we don’t know.
The Bible defines “love” as patient and kind. It does not envy, boast, and it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, is not self-seeking, is not easily angered, and keeps no record of wrongs. It says it always protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres. Love never fails. This should be our attitude toward all God’s people, those we know and those we don't know, those we agree with and those we disagree with, those who we have common interests with and those who completely get on our nerves.
Yikes! Some of those definitions stick out to me because either I do not do them or I do them to those I love. I do get angry easily, I do keep record of wrongs, and I am not always patient with those just living under my roof. How can I be all those things to the entire body of Christ? 1 John 4:17 says, “This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgement: In this world we are like Jesus.” Simple as that, strive to be like Jesus. Through God’s love there is a flame that is lit in our hearts. That flame can spread like a wildfire. When we show God’s love, others in turn show God’s love and the fire is spread. God’s love is the source of all human love. That is the only way we will be able to show true love to each other. We need to pray that God makes us see others through His eyes, not our jaded and biased eyes.
As we end this month of love, may we look at love in a different way. May we see others through a different lens, God’s lens. No, we’re not all perfect, but we can learn to see our faults before we see others. None of us deserves God’s love, but we have it. We have it freely, unconditionally, humbly, and always. Can we accept God’s love by showing love to others? By showing love to others, we are showing God how much we love Him. By keeping His commands, our true love for God is seen not only by God but by the world.
Digging Deeper: Read 1 John 4:7-21 and 1 Corinthians 13
Are there Christians that you have a hard time showing kindness to? Pray that God will help you.
How can you show kindness and patience to others outside your family and friend unit today?
How do you accept Jesus’ love for you through His death on the cross? Is His love hard to accept because you have a hard time loving yourself and others?