Going Deeper: Love the LORD your God
On Wednesday night we continued our series on the Shema by talking about what it means to truly Love God. We watched this video from the Bible Project which explains that love is both a matter of care/affection and choice/action. God both feels love for us and expresses that love with action.
We talked about how should love God the same way. We should express our love to God with action. We do this several ways, such as worship, prayer, quiet time alone with the LORD, and loving others. These actions, however should come from a heart full of genuine affection towards God. It is this part that many of us can so easily miss. When we compare our affections for God to how we feel about other things/people we realize a desperate need to increase our affections for God. This is something only God can do within us.
We aren’t capable of changing our own hearts. We are, however, capable of what we choose to give our hearts too. For those interested in going deeper in your love for God, here are some practical things to practice that will create space in your heart for God to fill and increase your love for him.
1) Meditate on his Nature: Find some scriptures that highlight a reason for loving God, and meditate on those passages. There is certainly no shortage of such texts. Some of my favorites are Lamentations 3:22-23, Exodus 34:6-7, Psalm 68:19-20, Romans 5:6-8, 2 Peter 3:9, James 1:17. Read one of those passages or another short passage about God’s charachter slowly many times, focusing intently on the meaning of each word. Do this until you have the passage memorized and continue to repeat the text slowly in your head.
2) Pray for God to increase your love for him: Jesus tells an interesting parable in Luke 18:1-8 about a persistent widow and an unjust judge. The widow continues to plea her case before the judge, until she wears down the judge and he gives her what she wants. The point of this parable is not that God is like the stubborn judge. The point is that God is not like this judge at all. If this wicked judge can be worn down by persistent requests then God, who is just and loving, will surely answer our prayers if we persist in them.
This is why I like the discipline of breath prayer. Breath prayer involves repeating the same short prayer over and over again following the rhythms of your breath. A simple breath prayer asking God to increase your love for him prayed for 5 minutes a day can go a long way towards stirring up affection in your heart for God. Here’s a simple example:
As you inhale pray: Lord increase my affections for you.
As you exhale pray: and decrease my love of self.
3) Go out of your way to show love to someone else: As you express love to other people your love for them will increase. As your love for fellow human beings increase, your love for God will increase. This is a result of the way God has created us to reflect his image. Look for opportunities to express love to others through action. One seemingly small act of kindness a day can go a long way towards increasing your affections for God. Loving others is a spiritual discipline just like prayer or reading scripture!