Quote:
Originally Posted by IHeartLarrytheCucumber
Saturday night, I was reading the Bible. One of the gospels, don't remember which. One of the verses I specifically remember reading was, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Sunday morning, on my way "home" (I didn't actually go home, you'll see) I was listening to a song on my CD. One of the song's major focuses was "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul with all your mind, and with all your strength."
For SOME reason, I can't even tell you why, I out of the blue decided to go to a church I've never been to, instead of going home right away. I NEVER go to places I've never been by myself, and this wasn't even something I'd been contemplating. It just was random, and I went. I got there, turns out I was just in time! (I had let the sun wake me up, and that occurred at 9:30. The service was at 10:30)
The sermon paper they handed me, on the back was "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul with all your mind, and with all your strength". Then, I realized the entire sermon was about loving God.
I was blown away!!!
Obviously, God's trying to tell me something.
My question is-HOW DO I DO IT! How do I love God! I want to so bad, more than anything! But I don't understand why the Bible tells us to just love God more than anything else, just like that. Like I can turn love on and off. I don't even know HOW to love God. I know how to love my mom. I see her every day. She gives the best hugs. She is tangible. She's my MOM. I don't, as much as I'd love to, know how to love God. I am at a loss right now. I accepted Him, yes. But this love did not come automatically to me.
Somebody, please explain this to me. And tell me how you came to love the Lord, because I sure can use some answers here.
Thanks =]
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hey there!!
it seems to me that at least part of the difficulty you are having, especially when you said something about turning love on and off like a switch.... is to not think that the love that God requires of us is really all that concerned about personal subjective feelings... feelings like you have for your mom, your father, any brothers or sisters you may have, or a close friend, etc etc.... you love all these people, and that evokes an subjective emotional response we call "love", and while you will of course experience this emotional response when you love God, when you think of all that He has done for you etc, but it is important to remember that loving God (and others for that matter) is so much more than merely that feeling we get when we feel close to someone.... so if you don't think of this as a command to conjure up emotions of some kind on a constant steady basis, the pressure you are wrongly putting on yourself should dissipate. When you love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, you are loving God while you are simply living out your life.... you love him with all your heart, soul mind and strength when you do the dishes, mow the lawn, shovel snow, read your bible, cook food, share time with friends and family, sing hymns of praise in church or out, when you read a commentary on a given book of the bible, try to understand Greek verb usage, read a book on systematic theology or on any given subject or doctrine covered in the bible, you can love God even if you are reading fiction providing of course that there is nothing inherently ungodly about the book, but you can love God when you brush your teeth, etc etc etc..... because the bible says to glorify God in all that you do...
1Co 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
a little phrase that has helped me in this regard is this:
Coram Deo which means "before the face of God", that is to say, we live out our entire lives before the face of God... Martin Luther, when he used this phrase, was trying to dispel the idea that we can compartmentalize our lives... that this part of our life is "sacred", here we go to church, we pray, we sing hymns, we do bible studies, etc..... and then there is the "secular", here we go to work, we go to school, we buy and sell, we engage in business transactions, etc etc. Luther said that it is totally wrong for us to split our lives up like this, we might say today that this is a bit schizophrenic!! Its like having a multiple personality disorder..... in the end though, its simply just wrong... its unscriptural... Luther wanted farmers to remember that when they walked behind their plows, they were Coram Deo, when the seamstress sewed, she was Coram Deo, that every job we do in our lives, no matter if it seems meaningless to us, no matter how boring it may seem to us, the job can take on eternal significance if we do that job Coram Deo.... the world viewed in that way can make street sweeping a beautiful thing!!!! so I commend the phrase to you in hopes that by keeping this simple phrase in the forefront of your mind, the life changing, deep and challenging meaning behind it will help you to love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength.
blessings,
Ken