LOVE THE HOLY GOD

                                                         by Cathy Brown

            The psalmist declared, “I will love thee, O Lord, my strength.”  (Psalm 18: 1) 

It is not that the chosen people of God have power within themselves to love God, but it is as the apostle John said, “We love him, because he first loved us.”  (I John 4: 19)  Nevertheless, we are commanded to love God. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”  (Matthew 22: 37)

            Loving God includes loving His commandments and loving “thy neighbor as thyself.”  (Matthew 22: 39) The psalmist claimed to love the law of God so much that he thought of it all day long.  “O how love I thy law!  It is my meditation all the day.”  (Psalm 119: 97)  The psalmist knew the peace that would come in loving the testimonies of the Lord.  “Great peace have they which love thy law:  and nothing shall offend them.”

(Psalm 119: 165)  Loving God is to love all that He is and all that He has commanded, to want His will above our own will, and to trust Him in all He does and commands.

            Loving God is to love Him with all our hearts.  That includes our will.  Often we put ourselves, and our wants above God and His will.  Sometimes, we are not aware of the extent in which we do this.  But God who is a God of love, “for God is love” (I John 4: 8) shines light into our darkened minds revealing our sin to us.  “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God”!

            Loving God is to love Him with all our soul.  The psalmist told his soul to “Bless the Lord”, and “all that is within me, bless his holy name.”  Our love is to “abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgment”.  (Philippians 1: 9)  The apostle said that, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  (Philippians 1: 21)  This is abounding in knowledge and judgment, living for Christ and Him alone.  This is loving Christ.

            Loving God is to love Him with all of our minds.  Our minds are capable of much evil, but we are exhorted to be of humbleness of mind.  “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, and longsuffering.”  (Colossians 3: 12)  Humility before the Lord is to love Him with all of our minds.

            Loving God is to love each other.  The New Testament testifies of the love of the brethren. To love each other is truly to love God.  Jesus said, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”  (John 13: 34)   Indeed, we are taught of God to love each other.  We know it is not always easy to be loving to each other, but even this is divinely sustained.  “And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another”.  (II Thessalonians 3: 12)

            The psalmist said “O love the Lord, all ye his saints:  for the Lord preserveth the faithful”.  (Psalm 31: 23)   Let our love to God be sincere, truly from the heart, and may the desire to love God grow in us each day, and may we each know and understand that we love Him only because He first loved us.   Bless the Lord, O my soul!