This is a question that a person who would genuinely desire to know the truth would ask. There are many fools who reject God and scoff at the idea of loving people who are created in the image of God. Yet they might even venture to provide an answer to such a question. They do this because they are really opinionated clowns.
This is a question I myself have asked. How can I love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my mind, with all my soul and all my strength? Some have told me to go and love my neighbor as myself. But that is easier said than done. Not everybody is so accepting of my loving. Rejection is more common than not.
To truly answer the question we would have to understand what is meant by the heart, the soul and the mind. Although, there is a reference to strength, as well as the other three constituents of heart, mind, and soul, in the Gospel of Mark.
We also need to understand what love actually happens to be, because love is many things to different people. We need to understand what Jesus meant by love when he said that we were to love God with our heart, our mind and our soul. Furthermore, we need to possess the correct understanding of God if we are to manifest the appropriate form of love. For even the Bible informs us that God is love.
Definitions are required for God, love, soul, mind and heart. For how can we love God with our heart, mind and soul, if do not understand what we are talking about. Ignorant people go on to appear foolish when they speak about what they know not. If our definitions are correct, then we can at least get something right and start making progress towards our desired aim, even if we are fallible human beings.
God is the Infinite, Almighty, Omniscient, Immortal, Transcendent, Supreme Being within Whom all things consist and exist, including the Universe in which we live.
Love is desire for someone that is accompanied with the full appreciation of the desired one's worth and feelings of euphoria.
Heart refers to the spirit of the individual, the unconscious inner core of our being that motivates and enables us to appreciate life and all it has to offer.
Mind is the intellect or conscious thinking capacity that enables us to process information and make conscious decisions in respect to our environment and the knowledge we are capable of recalling.
Soul is a subconscious natural force field that defines our emotional space as biological beings, that is conditioned by our environment to incorporate the desires of our carnal instincts to survive, covet and rule, otherwise known as the lusts of the flesh, eyes and pride of life.
If we are to love God because He is the Supreme Being, there will be a sense of awe and respect for His ability to create life and the majestic beauty that Creation possesses. However, we are distant from God. There is no relationship. This is the God of the agnostic. The God who set the Universe in motion and does not interfere with its operation. This is the God who provides us with no reason for being born into sin only to die, and then have to suffer in between. This is not the God of the Bible—even if there are those who read the Bible and say that this is their God.
The God described in the Bible is the Supreme Being within Whom we all exist and Who has a purpose for our being here. Evidently, God did not create evil, but because He gave creatures freewill, evil came into being. We are born into an evil existence, and God expresses His love for us through the death and resurrection of Himself in the form of Jesus of Nazareth, Who paid the price for our redemption and delivers us from darkness into light, providing we permit Him to act on our behalf. Therefore, the God of the Bible is the Creator Who desires to have an intimate relationship with us all. The Bible says that God desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. To this end, He desires that we pray for all people that they might be saved (1 Timothy 2:1-4)—something God would not require, if he had already decided who would be saved and who were not to be saved, regardless of what they did.
For us to love God, we first need to know Him and enter into a relationship with Him. Just as people become real to us when we begin to know them, so too, God desires to become real to us. The Lord God wants us to have a relationship with Him so that we might know Who He Is. When we know Who God is to us, then we can begin our relationship. Without having made the connection, there is no relationship. We may as well speak of the Prince of Pluto—for distance doth not a relationship make. The Bible is very clear that "in God we live and move and have our being" and He desires to live and move and have his being within us. This is an invitation only gig. We are the ones who say who plays the song of joy or the dirge of desolation in our hearts for eternity. Until we die, we are told that the Son of God is knocking on the door of our hearts, in the hope we might let Him inside.
- Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (Revelation 3:20)
Firstly by opening your ears and your heart so that He might come inside and reside. Until this occurs, there is no point in trying to understand the rest. For it is a matter of reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion that brings into submission all our desires for the short-lived relief that worldly pleasures provide, so that we can enter into the eternal satisfaction of knowing the pleasures of God's presence. And God's presence becomes very intoxicating, pleasurable and satisfying, indeed.
Once we have learned to experience the presence of God, we will learn to walk with God. Walking with God requires us to be absolutely given to being like Elijah in the Bible. For he was a person who possessed a nature like ours (James 5:17), but because of his commitment, he did not see death. Now this is what happens when people love the Lord God with all their hearts, and all their souls and all their minds and all their strength. This is reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion in action. For whoever keeps God's word, love is perfected in that one, and he or she will walk as Lord Jesus Christ walked when He was on Earth, in total obedience to what is right; only not from fear of punishment, rather because of the joy of life.
To love God with all one's heart, mind, soul and strength would require the understanding that God is LORD and He reigns over all things; therefore, one's complete trust in Him is justified, and will always be vindicated regardless of the situation, and there is no requirement for one to defend oneself under any circumstances, but simply rely upon Almighty God to meet every need; irrespective of how humiliating personal circumstances become or how hopeless prospects look for doing so. To love God is to be like Job
- Then his wife said to him, “Do you still cling to your integrity [and your faith and trust in God, without blaming Him]? Curse God and die!” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the [spiritually] foolish women speaks [ignorant and oblivious to God’s will]. Shall we indeed accept [only] good from God and not [also] accept adversity and disaster?” In [spite of] all this Job did not sin with [words from] his lips. (Job 2:9-10).
Understanding Experience Is The Key To Finding And Acknowledging Love Of God
No comments:
Post a Comment