Today’s question is, “Is loving God an emotion, a feeling, or a decision?” In this
video I’ll answer that question from a biblical perspective. Then afterwards, as always, I’ll
share some helpful resources, so stick around until the end.
Jesus said the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart
and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind” (Luke10:27). Repeatedly
throughout the Bible, God commands His people to love Him with all their hearts and serve
Him alone. But can love be commanded? How can we make ourselves love someone?
Since love is commanded, then it must be within our power, in Christ, to love. Love, therefore,
is a decision we make. Yes, love will often be accompanied by feelings, but emotion is
not the basis of love. In any given situation, we can choose to love, regardless of how we
feel.
The Greek word for “love” used in reference to God is agape, which means “benevolence,
delight, preference, or good will.” This is the kind of love God has for us. First
John 4:19 says, “We love because He first loved us.” Since God is love and we are
created in His image, we can love as He does. He has placed His capacity to love within
our hearts. He then teaches us how to love by demonstrating what real love looks like.
Loving God begins with a decision. It is a purposeful setting of our affections. We cannot
truly love God until we know Him. Even the faith to believe in God is a gift from Him.
When we accept His gift of eternal life through Christ, God gives us His Holy Spirit. The
Spirit of God dwelling within a believing heart begins to produce the traits of God,
the first of which is love. God Himself enables us to love Him as He deserves to be loved.
As we grow in knowledge and understanding of who God is, we begin to love the characteristics
that define Him, such as wisdom, truth, righteousness, and purity. And we begin to find the opposite
of those traits repulsive. Spending time with God causes our hearts to hunger for holiness,
and we find satisfaction only in more of Him, because He is the perfect embodiment of everything
we long for. Learning to worship Him “in spirit and in truth” allows us to experience
the pleasurable emotions of love. Emotion does not create love, but, when we choose
to love, the emotion comes. A. W. Tozer said, “Flowers and bird songs do not make spring;
but when spring comes, they come with it.”
One obstacle to loving God is love of this world’s sinful ways. We cannot serve two
masters, and neither can we love God and the world at the same time. “Do not love the
world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not
in them” (1 John 2:15). Many believers today need to heed the word given to the Ephesian
church: “You have forsaken the love you had at first” (Revelation 2:4). The call
is for a conscious returning of the affections to God alone.
Another obstacle to loving God is the mind. Our minds continually set themselves up against
the knowledge of God and challenge the faith that has made its home within our spirits.
Doubt, anger, misunderstanding, and false doctrine can all rob us of life’s highest
pleasure, intimacy with God. These obstacles can be overcome through repentance and a determination
to seek God above all else. In order to truly love God, we must stop insisting that God
explain Himself to our satisfaction. We have to crucify our pride and our right to approve
of His ways and allow Him to be God in our lives. When we humbly recognize that He alone
is worthy of our love and worship, we can abandon ourselves to loving Him for who He
is.
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