Loving God
“Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Matthew 22:37
Jesus tells us how to love God – we are to love Him with all of our heart, soul, and mind. He doesn’t leave out anything, does He? As a teenager, this can be an overwhelming task. I can remember the pressure I felt inside to be the perfect Christian and doubting myself when I fell short of that goal. What I understand now is that I am unable to love God this way without Him. He makes up the difference for us.
Because of Christ, we get to know the God that is perfect, all knowing, all present, and all loving. We can get to know God by reading His word, praying to Him, and following His lead in our actions, decisions, and everyday lives.
We can get to know God by accepting our role in the process of becoming more like Him. Jesus shows us, by His actions and love towards us, how to do this, and His word above tells us what we should strive for.
The ultimate question is, “Am I willing to give God ownership of all of my heart, all of my soul, and all of my mind? Am I willing to allow Him in to direct my path of life? Am I willing to love Him with everything I have?”
God knows that everything we have is imperfect. It is important to understand that God sees all of our faults and shortcomings, and He still loves us! Loving God means giving Him what we have to give in a given moment and giving Him permission to do the rest.
Loving God means to strive to give more but rest in the fact that He is in control. Loving God means loving others and learning to truly love ourselves. We can look to Him to accomplish what we cannot accomplish and trust that our salvation is secure because of Him. This is a relief to me as a Christian – there is less pressure in admitting that I cannot love God without God. I cannot love others without God – He completes the process, and He promises that He isn’t going anywhere.
Take away: Let me strive, today, to remember that I do not have to be perfect in order to receive Christ’s love. He loves me right where I am, no matter what.