Loving God

“Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:37-39

Love the Lord your God. I think sometimes that can be a difficult thing to grasp for us. It's easy to love people- and recognize the love we have for people. It's a physical, tangible thing that we feel, and we see the person we love and our heart reacts to that person being in out presence. And while I can say that of course there are times where we feel the same about God, it is harder, because he isn't a physical, tangible presence in our everyday lives. It's not like God just walks into a room and our heart leaps for joy because we see Him. Loving God is more...an act of faith, I guess.

I can say I love God, and of course I do, but I need to remind myself of that from time to time. Actually, most often, from day to day. This morning was one of those mornings where I sat down to do my blogging here and I kind of didn't want to. I was having one of those mornings where I totally regretted my decision to even start this blog. Because I post six mornings a week, and before I post, I spend time with God in His Word. It's a fantastic means of accountability for me, but the enemy will use anything he can to try and keep me from spending time with God. The allure of my other blogs and my website is great in the morning, and some mornings it really takes an effort to give God his time first. And then once I've managed to rouse myself into opening my Bible, I feel much better. Really. It's as if a peace washes over me, and I know I'm starting my day as I should, and eventually the words come to me to put on this screen here.

Loving God is very much like any other relationship in aspects as well. For example, I love my husband with all my heart. But sometimes, I don't like him very much, or sometimes he does things that drive me batty. Sometimes he chooses to do things I don't understand even, yet I still love him. I love my children, but there are certainly days where they make me so angry! Or they drive me completely crazy. Our relationship with God can be just like the relationships we have with people. There are days where I get angry with God- I hate having to watch our finances so closely, and I hate not being able to pay all our bills every month. And sometimes God does something that we really don't understand. Why on earth did he guide Andy to take this awful job? And why, a few weeks ago, did Andy come away from a promising sounding interview only to hear back nothing later on? And why on earth did God place it on my heart to get involved in the music ministry at church, only to have other people complain about it? That makes me mad AND drives me crazy!

But it's our relationship with God that makes me able to tell him all of this. It's because I love Him and He loves me that I can be open and honest and tell Him exactly what I think. I can tell Him that I've had enough or I can tell Him exactly how much I appreciate something. I can thank Him for all that He has done for us, and will continue to do, but at the same time, I can tell Him that I'd rather not go through that particular trial again. We have a fantastic God who loves us very much, and that's the type of relationship he wants with us. He wants us to be able to complain to him, to cry to him, or to praise him- all in one breath.

"Now I know that the LORD is greater than all other gods," Exodus 18:11