From the beginning of time, mankind
has tried to reach God and failed. The Bible describes our own efforts to
please God as “filthy rags.” We know
we are to love God but how? What must we do to show our love and gratitude to our
Lord and Savior?
In Luke 10:25-37, a lawyer posed this
question to Jesus, “Teacher, what shall I
do to inherit eternal life?” The answer was, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your
neighbor as yourself” (Luke
10:27 ESV).
So how can we be certain that we love
God? Let me share five sure ways to prove our love for our Master.
When we love God we recognize ownership.
We belong to Him and He belongs to us. It’s a love affair. Love is not forced,
it’s voluntary. When we love God, our inner attitude and our outward action
shows everything we are, everything we have belongs to God. We have rights but
we gladly surrender them to His purposes - willingly.
The strength of a relationship is based
on its communication. Loving God shows a keen desire to hear what He has to
say. When we love God, we will read His word – the Bible. Loving God also means
we trust and accept the whole Truth and give our listening hearts to hear what God
has to say. Loving God means we talk to Him which is called prayer. Our love
for God’s Word is an indicator of our love for Him.
Another way we can measure our love
for God is to obey God’s Word. We all know Christians who are very knowledgeable
in the Bible but when it comes to living out His commandments, we begin to
struggle. This is why many Christians have such a hard life. God’s love for us
is unconditional but His blessings come with strings attached. Often you’ll
read in the Bible if you do this… I will do… Let’s obey God’s Word and the blessings
will follow.
We can also prove our love for God is
by our appetite for the things of God. An immature person lives to advance his
own gain but a Godly person will have interest in the things that matters to
God. When we love Him, we love what is near and dear to His heart; for example,
world evangelization.
Another
key component of loving God is our love for people. John exhorts us, “Whoever claims to
love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love
their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have
not seen” (I John 4:20 NIV). This is why Jesus
tells the parable of the Good Samaritans.
Today we live in a society where we barely ever interact with our immediate
neighbors. So who is our neighbor in the 21st century? I believe the
people God brings in our path every day are the neighbors God wants us to
touch. When we are compassionate toward our fellowman, we’re advertising our
love for God and His love for them.
Friends, let us love God and His
people!
No comments:
Post a Comment