LOVING GOD
Mat 22:37 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

How can we do this? No matter how strong our love is there is a voice inside us that says we can do better. How much love is enough? When can we be confident when we know God is looking at us and we know He is smiling?

These are hard questions especially when one wants to know much is needed to please God.  One can answer these questions by saying that God knows our heart. He knows what we want our self to be like. He knows that our desire is to be close to him and to please Him.  What can we do to show God what we want more than anything in the world is to please him?

All to often we think of God waiting in the sidelines to catch us messing up.  This is not God at all.  Have you ever had a parent or a mentor or someone else who you enjoy being with.  These people give you limits.  When you go beyond those limits, they become stern.  You feel as if you are separated from them.    You feel distraught.  What is really happening is that authoritative figure is waiting for you to perform an action to eliminate that separation between him or her and yourself.  Sometimes the authoritative figure will make the first move.  God is that authoritative figure.  He loved you so much that he gave his only Son to be that sacrifice to unite you and God.  Sometimes now God wants to hear you repent.  Repentance does not only take away that division between you and God, but also makes you feel better about yourself.

Another way is to ask God to give us the ability to love him the way he deserves to be loved.  This goes against our human nature.  We want to do things our self using our own ability.  Look through the Bible.  God asks us to do many things.  God also shows us that he will help us in our actions when we allow God to participate.  The ancient Christian writers called this passive actions and active actions.   Active means our actions.  Passive means what we allow God to participate.  When we are spirit led, there are both active and passive actions that act together in sequence with one another.

To love God with all our might, we must be aware of his continual presence.  That doesn’t mean that one has to feel his presence, but just the knowledge that the presence of God is with you.  When you wake up in the morning, ask God what his plans are for you today.  He might tell you or he might not.  Just go on with the days business.  Thank God when events happen in your life whether good or bad .  Remember God is with you no matter what.  Enjoy him always.

Just like I said in previous essays, God treats us both as individuals and as a group.  Your experiences with God is different than mine.  My goal is to stimulate you in contemplating all the ways God showed his love towards you.  Enjoy His presence.