I love God. I believe that you love God or you would not take the time to read this article. However, do I love God the way He deserves? That is a work in progress and, if I’m completely honest, some days are better than others.

The first step to loving God the way He deserves is to KNOW what the Bible teaches on this subject. Once we understand what God wants, then it’s just a matter of having the character to apply it to our lives every day.

I have two beautiful dogs that I love very much. When I come home from work, both dogs greet me. We have a little ritual when I get home, I put down the stuff in my hands and then open the door to let them out. Jake loves the outside and as soon as the door is opened, he heads out and will stay out there for as long as I let him. Apollo never heads out the door right away. If I stay in the kitchen, he follows me and sits at my feet. If I go to my room, he follows. He will not go outside (even if he has the need to go outside) until I give him some love and attention. I want to compare that to how we treat God. Do we take what He gives us and walk away or do we take the time to first thank Him before continuing on with our blessing? I ask myself often, Am I like the nine ungrateful lepers, who took what Jesus did for them but did not thank Him? (Luke 17:17) I want God to know that my relationship with Him is more important to me than what He does for me. 

“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.”

Mark 12:30

Since this is how Jesus taught us to love God, let’s learn how to love God the way He wants.

With all thy heart: This means we need to love the Lord with all our emotions and our affections. Many times we begin to love the world or the things in the world, and God is not first in our hearts. If God is first place in our hearts, we will not begin to have feelings outside of our marriage or allow worldly philosophies to take over biblical principles in our life. Many of our sins can simply be avoided with loving God with all our emotions or with all our heart. When we recognize an emotion that is not biblical in the early stages of development, then a small adjustment can be made to redirect it. If we allow the wrong emotion to enter into our life without making the corrective adjustment, it is much harder to resolve later especially if it becomes a strong hold in our life. Deceit is one of Satan’s weapons. He does his best to convince us that we can stop or rectify the situation whenever we want; however, the further along we go into sin (with our heart leading the way) the solution becomes a major adjustment. Major adjustments will affect every area of our life, so at this point many Christians choose to cover up their sin instead of getting right. Satan convinces us of lie after lie. First, that the sin is no big deal, we can control it. Second, that it is such a big deal that we must hide it. We can avoid all of his lies by diligently guarding our heart every day from bitterness, anger, envy, inappropriate affections, etc. Recognize your own temptations and make simple adjustments in your life that will protect your heart from the invasion of our enemy.

“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” 

Proverbs 4:23

The best way to keep our affections right is to wake up every morning and thank God for all He has done for you, to let Him know how much you love Him, and then to spend time praising Him. If you do this before you even get out of bed, then you are starting your day talking to God first. Such a simple thing that can make a huge difference in your day.

With all thy soul: This means with all of your being. God comes first. When we put God first in everything, we walk more humbly in our attitude, actions, and speech. Too much pride means that we do not have ourselves in proper order; perhaps, we have placed a higher priority on ourselves or a loved one than on God. When we keep ourselves in proper order and put God in His rightful place, we walk more humbly with man.

“He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” 

Micah 6:8

The above verse is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It is my 2021 verse for which to live. I think that we could simplify life if we just lived justly, loved mercy, and walked more humbly with God.

With all thy mind: This means to love God with all our thoughts and decisions. Every thought and every decision that we make either draws us closer to God or takes us farther from God. Each day we choose if we are going to love God with our mind or not; it is a daily decision. We need to renew our mind daily. It gets cluttered with the cares and things of this world.

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”

Romans 12:2

The best way to renew our minds is to read our Bible. Another way to keep our minds right is to pay attention to the words of every congregational song we sing at church. During a church invitation, if we sing the song below, I cannot sing it without tears. 

I Surrender All

All to Jesus I surrender
All to Him I freely give
I will ever love and trust Him
In His presence daily live

All to Jesus I surrender
Humbly at His feet I bow
Worldly pleasures all forsaken
Take me, Jesus, take me now

I surrender all
I surrender all
All to Thee my blessed Savior
I surrender all

With all thy strength: This means to love God with everything that you have. What is your talent? What are you really good at doing? That is YOUR strength! Are you using YOUR strengths for God or for your own gain? It is not always clear when a Christian is loving God with everything that they have, because we are not all the same and God requires separate things from His children. However, it is very evident when a Christian is not loving God with everything that they have. Their actions and speech betray them. Let’s use the talents and strengths that were given to us from God for God!

Charles Spurgeon said:

“With all your heart—means intensely. With all your soul—means sincerely, most lovingly. And with all your strength — means with all our energy, with every faculty, with every possibility of our nature.”

It is my prayer that these thoughts would help us all to love God more and to love the world and the things of the world less. (I John 2:15)