Episode 461 - Show Notes
- Notice that our love for God is to be comprehensive. The word “all” is used three times. If we love God with all of our heart, all of our soul, all of our strength - no area is left out.
- Why love? Why not duty? Why not create a religion where we work for our salvation? The answer is because God has created us to be in relationship with himself. It would be possible to fulfill religious duties and obligations and have no relationship. God is not interested in this.
- When we truly love we are devoted. We are committed. We are loyal. Love is not a temporary feeling. We hear people say the fell into love and they fell out of love. They are referring to the emotional aspect of love. But true love is so much bigger. Love is a decision, a daily decision.
- Pastor John Piper once wrote these words: “Loving God will include obeying all his commands; it will include believing all his word; it will include thanking him for all his gifts. But all that is overflow. The essence of loving God is admiring and enjoying all he is. And it is this enjoyment of God that makes all of our other responses truly glorifying to him.”
- Having an authentic and genuine love for God doesn’t originate from our emotions, our choices, or our abilities. Actually, our love for God originates from God himself. It is God who enables us to have this kind of relationship with himself. Imagine this: how can the created love its creator
- When we experience the love of God, we are then able to return this love. We do not love God and then he loves us back. No, God himself initiates love toward us.
- So, what does this love look like? What does this love look like? It wants to be with God. It wants to talk with God and listen to him. It wants to live in a way that pleases him and keeps his commandments. It wants to keep this relationship at the very forefront of our lives. It wants to put God first in all situations. When choices have to be made, we ask how this affects our relationship with God. It’s putting him first in every area of our lives.
Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
1 John 4:19 - “We love because He first loved us.”
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