Jamestheforth

Hi Cucumber,
I've read the entire thread with all the replies. Everyone of them are very good. They are all true in what they have said.
I have found a different way for loving God. That is, to pray to Him every day, all day. You don't have to be on your knees. You could be walking around, doing your job or going to school, or whatever. Pray to Him everyday, all day.
The Catholic Church has some great saints. Everyone of them were also great prayers.
Pray all the time!

jamestheforth

hgomez2

One way to love God is to give him the firsts of everything. The tithing concept should not only apply to income, but to every aspect of your life. Give him the first part of your day (time), give him your emotions (worship), etc.

Mellow

Cucumber,

It means to live your life entirely for God. Give up everything for him. Literally everything that is keeping you from living for him.

Kingssman

I came to this forum to seek salvation.

i've grown up in church, learned god's word, baptised, and respected God. I spent my college years trying to learn more about god, what is god, who is god, why does god do the things he does.

I've actively searched for God, mostly because I envy the believers.

I envy those who can give themselves to God the way they do, they make it seem so easy, while here I struggle with my faith. I've done everything I can to become a decent man, to respect and honor others as I would honor Jesus if I came face to face with him oneday.

I worked hard at my life, my job, my marriage, my house. I tried to live the ideal life that I thought God intended for me to live. I tried to live that honest, careing life and lead through Jesus's example by forgiving sinners, accepting rainy days, praising god for the sunny ones.

However things changed. over the past 2 years I've lost my father, lost my friend, and now I've lost my wife. It seems the lord is taking away everything that I worked for. I try to keep faith, but it keeps getting tested. I feel as if my faith in god isn't good enough or is a constant uphill climb.

Through all my pain, I began to question god, I began to think that God wants to see me suffer under all this pressure. I used to pride myself at handleing life's challenges mostly because I believed it was a strength that God has given me, but lately its like he is kicking it up a notch. at times I would scream "Lord! you win!, make it stop, stop the pain, stop the chaos, stop feeding me this tragedy! What is it you want? what do you want from me?"

How is it that some people can fall in love with God so easily while here I am having such a hard time trying to connect. Why does it feel that reaching God is such an uphill battle? I know that i'm no saint, and I do battle with sin and temptation on a daily basis it's something I just can't shrug off overnight.

I envy all those christian faces that smile because their hearts are filled with the lord. Their lives are blessed because the lord has uplifted them. I once thought I was a part of that group too, but now I feel cast out because I wasn't good enough.

I want to be able to open my heart to the Lord, but my heart was so hurt and wounded through death, divorce, loss that I question if my faith was ever good enough, that somehow my I wasn't christian enough because I had to struggle to fight off sin and temptation and Christ doesn't come naturally.

Banarenth

It's easy to loose track of God when things go bad, if they've always been kinda "perfect". Sometimes I wonder how anyone raised in the church can ever find Salvation, because it's so hard to realize that you NEED it.

Sadly, the opposite is also true. Brothers in Christ born through adversity have a hard time holding on once things start going well. Because they reach out in despair for hope, and once the trials are over, feel empty.

But the Bible doesn't say that we are going to be given perfect lives, or that we are called to happiness and joy. The Scripture doesn't say that God wants us to be happy, and faith is not simply belief, it is reliance on God. True faith is fully relying on God for His plan, and trusting HIS plan over our own desires.

I often wonder if the people I see are truly filled with hope and joy all the time. You never really know what is going on in people's hearts and minds. I know that a lot of my friends firmly believe I've never had a sad moment in my life because I'm always cheerful around them. I'm sure there are some that would give credit to an eternal joy in Christ for that. But the truth is, more often than not, I'm deeply depressed and I doubt myself constantly. Many people know that side of me as well, but I know for a fact, that many of my friends are shocked when they see a glimpse of that side of my personality. Funny how a part of my life that occupies MOST of my thoughts is almost completely invisible to some of those that know me the best.

But Christianity isn't about seeking reward, or being promised a prosperous life. We have been called as servants, and our lives are to be humble before a Holy God. We aren't promised glory and a lack of pain. We are only promised that God will be there with us as we go through them. In the past 3 years, I've lost everything I worked hard for as well, my wife, my kids, my house, my job, and most of my possessions. It's been a hard climb, but if it wasn't for God...then I truly would have lost everything. But I know that I can't allow Satan to take away my relationship with God. Otherwise, I truly would have lost everything.

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Kyle_ROLWC

Hey IHeart,

That is an incredible story about GOD telling you to love him with all your heart, soul and mind. I may be able to help you a little bit on this. I think I remember you posting somewhere else that you have children. I do as well. Sometimes I ask my son I say "Who's boy are you?" and he lovingly replies with a smile "Daddy's!!". Now I know he loves me and he knows I love him but to hear that from him warms my heart and makes me feel like superman. GOD knows you love him and you know he loves you. I bet it warms GOD's heart to hear that reaffirmed when he asks you that question, "Do you love me with all your heart, mind and soul?" He wants so much to just hear the word "YES!". Know this too. When you look at your child and feel that unconditional love for them no matter what they do, many more times then that GOD loves each and every one of us. I pray for you IHeart that you can see and feel this love GOD has for you and in return, show it to him!!

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1 Chronicles 4:10 ~ And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not cause pain! And God granted him that which he requested.

el Pollo

I am sure that everyone has already explained what loving God with everything really means. But I'd like to say what it means to me in a hope that the definition will be personal to you.

Loving God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength to me means doing everything in your life like you are doing it for God. Worship? Yep. Work? Yep. Loving others? Yep. Everything.

I am human. That means sometimes I cannot find the ability to love others. Especially if they have faulted me in some way. But I know that if I love God, he'll give me the grace to love others. That is a form of worship to me. The worst ( and most vulnerable for anyone) is when I am in my car or truck alone and someone cuts me off. I am sure that 100% of everyyone here will find themselves developing a negative comment or at least a very off color hand gesture. It's very liberating to just hit the brakes, move out of the way and simply go about your business. That to me is God giving me the grace to love another enough to dismiss their less-than-stellar driving.

Loving God often means self sacifice. It means helping out your neighbor when they have to haul something and you have a truck. Even though it's $9.95 a gallon. It means wanting to be lazy in a hammock all afternoon and your buddy calls and asks for a helping hand in clearing a fallen tree, and you get up and do it.

When it comes to my wife and kids, I know as a sin-infected human I cannot give them the love they require and need on my own. But when I place my limited love towards God, he blesses them by showing them an infinite love through me that is absolutely amazing.

So in the end it's Love God with all you got. Then you can show the love of God and love everyone else, either by just being there or offering up help. It's all circular. But in a good way.

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WhiteLioness

Me too. I love reading the Bible, it's addicting like a drug, a favorite past-time of mine.

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Romans 10:9-13 -- 9That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. 12For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. 13For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Acts 4:12 -- Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

John 3:17 -- For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

John 14:6 -- Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Whoever makes fun of these Scriptures is not going to have the last laugh, I can guarantee you that! This a very serious matter of utmost gravity and sincerity. Your life hangs in the balance. Believe on the name of the Lord and be saved. Read what Romans 10 says above and do that proceedure. Become one of HIS saints.

kipferg

I love God because he gave his only son Jesus, to die on the cross for my sins. Wow, that just blows me away.

For me it started by the feeling of going to Church and to learn more about him. The seed was planted and it grew inside of me. Every day I want to learn more and be a better person and live more like God. We are not even close and sometimes my failures get me down. But it seems God knows that and I feel a spirit lifting me up. Great Post.

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Gary
Family Christian Media
http://www.familychristianmedia.com

revlynn

There is a difference between subjective love and objective love. There was a time (before I was saved) when I felt that I loved God with all I had, but it was subjective love (what I felt). Objectively, I was as far away from God as it is possible to be.

There is a reason why God asks us to love Him with our "heart, soul and strength". Together, these represent the whole three-fold nature of man -spirit, soul and body. (Some places where this occurs in Scripture add the word "mind", which is actually part of our soul. Obviously God understands that our mind is a particularly difficult area to master!)

Our "heart", or spirit, is that part of us that is created for fellowship with God. Before we come to Christ it is non-functional because of sin; when we are born again it is re-activated. Our spirit includes the functions of worship, conscience and revelation. We love God with our spirit (heart) by worshipping Him, and by responding to the direction of His Spirit given either through His Word or directly. This happens as He gives us a revelation of Himself, and of ourselves before Him.

Our soul is the thing that makes us, us. It includes the functions of intellect, emotion and will. We love God with our soul by allowing His Word and His Spirit to transform our thinking. As we learn more about Him, we allow ourselves to respond emotionally to Him. But sometimes we also have to love Him out of our will - we "use our chooser" and determine that, no matter what may be going on in our lives, we will put Him first.

Our "strength" refers to our body - the thing through which everything that happens in our spirit and soul is worked out. Loving God with our strength means that we will actually live the way He wants us to live, acting and speaking as He wants.

All three have to be operating. If we try to love God only with our strength, we will end up in legalism, trying to live the way He wants in our own strength, but with no life or joy associated with it. If we try to love Him only with our soul, we may end up emotionally "in love" with Him, but objectively as far from Him as possible, as I was.

Most of all, our spirit must be activated through the new birth, otherwise we have no chance at all of truly loving Him.

Kingsman, I think this may be the source of your struggle. The Word says, "In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and gave His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sin." (1 John 4:10) Until you have really accepted God's love for you, and the salvation He offers, you cannot love Him. Our salvation is not based on anything we can do, but on what He has already done for us. Our love for Him does not bring about our salvation, but flows from it.

blessings,

Lynn

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