And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. {Mark 12:30}
How do we love God? The Lord tells us to love Him with all of our hearts, mind and soul, and with all of our strength. But do we really do this? Do we really know how to love Him with all of our hearts, mind, soul and strength?
So many of us define our own way of loving God. Some love God through doing good to the poor and feeding the hungry. Some go and become a missionary or an evangelist and travel to remote villages to preach the gospel. Some define their love by going to church all the time and not missing a Sunday’s service. And yet, I don’t know if we’re really loving Him enough through these acts of love. We could do all these works and believe it or not, still come short in our love for Him. Take the church at Ephesus for example, the Lord commends them for their wonderful works of righteousness proving their love for Him, yet He turned around and rebuked them for abandoning Him. He tells them they have left Him and they need to repent or He will take away their light from them – their candlestick. Which makes me wonder, does that mean they will end up in darkness? How scary. Does that mean if we leave the Lord and not spend time with Him, we can end up in darkness? God forbid. This is the way the Lord had put it to the Ephesians,
I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. {Revelation 2:2-5}
Imagine that. That’s the thing we could end up doing. We could be very busy doing all these wonderful works for God, doing what we believe will prove to Him that we love Him, but we have instead turned around and stopped spending time with Him. The truth is, this is how the Lord defines true love: spending time with Him. It shouldn’t come as such a surprise for us since we feel the same way. Can you imagine growing up feeling loved if your parents aren’t around for you? Can you imagine feeling loved once you’re married and your spouse is too busy to spend time with you? I don’t think so. We all define being loved by the attention a person gives to us. The more they spend time with us (and we with them), the more we will feel their love. So it is with the Lord. Since we are created in His image we are like Him, and He is like us.
I have found time and time again in my experience with Him, that talking to Him makes Him feel loved by me. When I tell Him how much I appreciate Him and the things He’s done for me, I feel His Holy Spirit responding back to me letting me know that He’s happy with me. He is feeling loved by me. In turn He makes me feel His love. My heart overflows with His love so much I end up crying. This is what He has shown me time and time again. When we spend time talking to Him, thanking Him, and pouring our hearts out to Him, He feels loved by us.
But I must caution you, talking to God and spending time with Him alone is not enough. There is an important element in talking to Him. The most important thing is to talk to Him with all of our hearts. This is why He commands that we should love Him with all of our hearts, soul and mind. You could spend all day long with your prayer list and pray for your problems and the problems of the world, but if you’re not talking to Him with all of your heart, you’re wasting your time. You are not ever going to love Him that way. You are not ever going to know Him that way. If we’re not seeking after Him but are just mouthing off prayers to Him and our hearts are far from Him, He is really turned off by it. We’re not going to go very far. This is what the Book of Isaiah said about it,
Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid. {Isaiah 29:13-14}
If we’re just speaking our prayers and not really seeking the Lord and coming to Him with all of our hearts, wisdom is going to be hidden from us. We will not come to understand who He is and what He has for us. If we’re just praying and doing good works because this is what we were taught growing up, then the Lord will not be happy with us. If we just fear Him based on what we’re taught but don’t really fear Him for ourselves, our fear of Him is not genuine. We will go on thinking we know Him but we don’t. We will even be convinced that He knows us but He doesn’t. We have to listen to His word through Prophet Jeremiah when the Lord said,
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. {Jeremiah 29:13}
It is so important to search for Him, and seek for Him with all of our hearts in our talks with Him. It’s a two-way street relationship with the Lord. It’s not just us doing all the talking all the time. We have to be listening too. When we’re seeking with all of our hearts we will listen. We will want to know what He’s saying to us. And trust me on this He does talk. If you will let Him talk you will hear Him. That’s why it’s so important to come to Him with all of our hearts, because He will speak to us. He will show us how to know Him, how to hear Him and how to even love Him. When we come with all of our hearts, then we will wait on Him to respond to us and show us what He wants to tell us. That’s why the Lord tells the children of Israel during Moses’ time, and tells the people in the New Testament to love Him with all of their hearts, mind, soul and strength. We can’t be just doing works of love for Him or even pray and fast all day long, and yet we’re not coming to Him with all of our heart and soul and mind. If we’re doing it really just to look good or to make ourselves feel good (because we’ve done what God required), then we’re wasting our time. We’re doing it for ourselves or for others and not for Him. The Lord clearly showed Isaiah the prophet He doesn’t like that at all. He doesn’t like us coming to Him with our lips but our hearts are far from Him. We’re not fooling anyone but ourselves in the process. If we’re not seeking Him with all of our hearts and not talking to Him with all of our hearts, then we’re not loving Him at all the way He has commanded us to love Him.
Remember the parable that Jesus talked about in the Book of Matthew? The Lord talked about a group of people who comes to Him on Judgment Day saying to Him,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? {Matthew 7:22}
But then the Lord turned around to them and said to them,
I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. {Matthew 7:23}
They did all these wonderful works in the Lord’s name, yet He turned around and told them He didn’t know them. You see the reason they had iniquity in their hearts was because they weren’t being honest with Him. They weren’t coming to Him with all of their hearts. They were hiding things from Him. We could talk to the Lord and do good works all we like, but if we’re not coming to Him with all of our hearts we could end up unclean before Him. That’s what will happen if we’re not being completely open to Him with our hearts and any sin that might be hiding in there. It is so important that when we love Him we’re really loving Him with all of our hearts, soul, mind and strength. That means, we’re being transparent, honest, and open to Him.
This is the beautiful thing about being honest and open with God: we don’t have to be perfect. We don’t have to prove anything to Him, because we know He already knows us and we can be who we are from our hearts. His yoke indeed is easy and His burden light. {Matthew 11:30} We don’t have to try to climb Mount Sinai or cross rivers and oceans to unknown remote places to try to prove to God we love Him. The only thing we need to do is just talk to Him and be ourselves with Him. We could just be plain and honest and simple to the Lord, and He will be pleased with us simply because we’re not hiding anything from Him. When we hide things from Him we’re lying to Him, and He hates lying. He knows everything about us already. There is nothing we can hide from Him. There’s nothing we’ve done that He hasn’t seen already. The Bible states that even the very intents of our hearts are known to Him.
I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. {Jeremiah 17:10}
The challenge of loving God is a daily process. It’s not going to happen overnight. It’s a simple practice of denying ourselves, taking up our cross daily, and following Him. The more we are honest with ourselves and with the Lord when we talk to Him, the more we will come to love Him. We will come to know Him, because He will reveal Himself to us. And the more we love Him with all of our hearts, the more He will be pleased with us.
And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. {Luke 9:23}
And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. {Luke 14:27}
Prayer
Lord Jesus thank You Father with all of my heart for Your great love upon Your people today. Thank You for giving us Your wonderful and precious blood at the cross to save us from our sins today. Thank You Father that we don’t have to hide anything from You. You love us and Your desire is to save us from our sins. We can be honest and open with You as much as we like, because You love us and accept us and know everything about us already. The more we are honest and open with You, the more You can help us to be better followers of You. Help us then Lord Jesus to love You with all of our hearts, soul and mind and strength. Help us to be open and honest with You. Help us to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow You. I ask for all of these things in Your most wonderful and precious name, Jesus. Thank You, Father. Amen.
