How to Love God More: Part 1

Have you ever thought about this?

Thought…

Hmmm… maybe I need to love God more?

Or are you too busy focusing on his love for you?

You do realise that God commands us to love him?

Why would he do this if it was not important to him…

and us?

Why do so many Christians take God’s love for granted?

Why do you not focus your whole being on loving God?

Is your life bubbling over with your love of God?

What is love?

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are  tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.  When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. 

But the greatest of these is love.    

1 CORINTHIANS 13

Is this what you feel for God?

Are you patient with God?

Or do you get angry at unanswered prayer?

Do you love God so much that you trust him implicitly?

Or are you full of anxiety about your life?

Do you love God enough to let go of control?

Or are you sure you know best?

Are you chasing what you want and forsaking trust in God and what he decrees?

What does the Bible say about how to love God ?

Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.  And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

MARK 12:29-31

Love GOD obsessively.

With every fibre of our being.

Completely.

Not half- heartedly. 

God does not want a situationship.

He wants a full, intimate relationship with us.

GOD demands that we are all in.

He wants us to love him more than anything else we have in our lives.

This means putting our love for GOD before everything.

We need to forsake our idols…

our addictions…

our favourite habits…

and just love GOD more and more and more.

What does the Bible say about loving God above all else?

“You shall have no other gods before me.

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

“You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.

EXODUS 20 :3-7

In order to love God more we need to get rid of our other loves:

1. Love of greed
2. Love of lust
3. Love of pride

All other idols fall into these categories:

Addictions, selfishness, arrogance, comparison, jealousy etc, etc.

Every sin has at its root the love of greed, lust or pride.

To LOVE GOD more we need to depart from the flesh and embrace the spirit.

To LOVE GOD MORE we need to focus on GOD.

We need to TRUST GOD.

We need to give our lives to GOD and obey.

We need GOD’s holy guidance and the power of the Holy Spirit to do this.

We cannot do anything under our own strength.

Let us pray:

FATHER GOD HELP US TO LOVE YOU MORE. SHOW US OH LORD HOW TO LOVE YOU WITH EVERY FIBRE OF OUR BEING. HELP US OH LORD TO PUT YOU FIRST IN EVERYTHING. THANK YOU GOD THAT YOU LOVED US FIRST. WE ASK THAT YOU STEER OUR HEARTS AND MINDS AND LIVES ON THE PATH OF OBEDIENCE AND UNFALTERING LOVE FOR YOU.. IN JESUS MIGHTY NAME WE PRAY. AMEN.