Contemplating Loving God
The Main Thing God Wants from Us
Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength is the main thing God wants from you and from me. I know, according to Westminster Catechism man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. That is well and good. However, that will never happen until we fall in love with Him.
Over the last four weeks we looked at the four Greek words for love. In consideration of those who may not have read the previous articles, the four loves are eros (romantic love), storge (family love), philia (warm fuzzy love), and agape (choosing to treat people as God would have us treat them—as per I Corinthians 13). Also, agape in its verb form is the word used for loving God with all our heart (Mark 12:30).
Give Me Such Love
But is loving God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength even possible? Yes, it is once we genuinely grasp the fullness of His love for us. In I John 4:19 we read that “we love Him because He first loved us.”
I was a believer for some time before I truly came to love the Lord. But there was a day when I literally got down on my knees and told the Lord that I believed in Him but did not love Him, and I prayed, “Lord, give me such a love!” Furthermore, I asked Him to pour His love into me that I might indeed love Him and love others. From there the hard stuff of life drove me to His heart. I thank God for those relentlessly difficult times. It is through love for Him that we are able to endure hardships. It is through facing those hardships in a God honoring way that we glorify Him. And as we love and glorify Him we also enjoy Him. Yes, loving God is the main thing!