Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Matthew
22:36-40 (KJV)
Alexia* and I stood on the corner after church. We both shared a
similar pain in our love relationships. It feels good to not feel like an
island in this world. Many of us don’t know the truth but when we do, the truth
does a great work in setting us FREE. (John 8:32) When we experience true freedom, we
should reach out to others who are suffering so that they will know they are
not alone. We should comfort and encourage each other until we get over to the
other side of the storm.
When it comes to our love relationships, our heavenly Father has
given us the formula for successful relationships of all kinds.
💓 Read other articles about True Love:
The Secret to True Love: The Fruit of the Spirit is Love
The Secret to True Love: Life Changing Love
The Secret to True Love: 2 Reasons You May Be Unhappy in Love
3 Steps to Long and Lasting Love: Step 2
3 Steps to Long and Lasting Love: Step 1
What does society teach us about love relationships?
In my
experience, as a young unmarried female, I believed that the man I married
would love me in a way that he would be kind to me, we would play and pray
together and complete each other. I was a romantic according to the world’s
standards. Then, after loving and losing a couple of times, I have come to
cherish God’s truth about love and relationships.
Our heavenly Father has a formula that is guaranteed to make us
survivors of heartache. The formula is revealed in the Bible… Like they call
it: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. Yes! The Bible is the manual that
God has preserved through the ages to help you and me to navigate through every
aspect of life while we live here on earth.Here we go with Step 1!
Step 1: Love God first.
Jesus Christ, love in the flesh, taught that we should love our
Father with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind (Matthew 22:37). Let’s
examine the teaching in this verse of scripture.
The word heart is from the Greek kardia which means with our
thoughts and feelings.
The word soul is from the Greek psuche which means with our
spirit, the breath from God Almighty which caused us to become a living soul
(Genesis 2:7). We are spiritual beings who travel in bodies which house our spirit.
(Matthew 10:28)
Note well that if we are living souls because God breathed His
breath into us, it means we are from one God. We are His children. He is our
Father.
The word mind is from the Greek dianoia which means with our
imagination, intelligence and understanding, our thought processes.
Therefore, we ought to develop affection for God in our essence.
He should be the One our souls long for in those stressful seasons. He should
be the one that we consult first about our ideas and about plans. He should be
the one we go to bed with and wake up with every single day because He is both
the first object and the origin of love for us. And
it makes sense! God is not like our fellow human beings. He never leaves us. He is patient, kind and gentle or stern
when He needs to be. He extends grace to us which is favour undeserved. he always has time for you and His attention is constant. The love we have for or Father should be a profound respect for Him, the One Who
does ALL things well! (Genesis 1:31; Mark 7:37)
Additionally, this is one key to unlocking and understanding scripture: God is
love (1 John 4:8). This never changes. Some occurrences will seem unfair but if we would acknowledge and trust in His love, He will start to reveal to us sometimes the reasons behind
unfortunate experiences and how He works out the worst of situations for the
profound good of many afterwards. When we only see God our Father as a punitive
God, we don’t get to enjoy all that He really is which is a Father who cares
about your uncertainties, your habits that are hurting you and your
relationship with Him, your heartaches, even the shoes that you choose to wear
today! I know a lady who didn’t listen to our Father’s voice when she was told in her spirit not to wear those shoes that day. She ended up walking barefoot in her diva
outfit much to her embarrassment. He cares! And it is this Father who wants to
have an intimate relationship with you and me where we come to know Him and love Him
because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
How can we get to know and love Him?
We can get to know more about Almighty God and grow in love with Him by doing the following:
2. Mediate on the scriptures (Joshua 1:8; Psalm 1:2). By mediation we do not mean
to empty the mind but to constantly fill the mind with passages of scripture
that we recite over and over and by reflecting on each line in the
selected scripture. We will start to see the connections between our daily life
and activities in light of what the scriptures teach and/or reveal.
4. Have conversations with Father regularly. A fancy word for conversations with God is 'prayer'. Talk with Him as you would talk with a friend who cares and who is listening... because He does! Sometimes I set my timer to 1 hour and talk to my Friend. And at intervals I stop and listen. At the end of those sessions I feel much lighter. Matthew 6:9-13
And in all of this, it is His love for us that gives us the gift of choice. He doesn’t force anything on us. That is not love. Love doesn’t argue or abuse. Love encourages growth, purity, peace, kindness and more love. Love makes us better people.
This is the way forward:
We will love first the most important, unchanging Lover of our souls, God our Father because He will still be there when everyone else disappoints us.
His grace is extended to you right now. Won't you accept it?
Summary:
First John 4:8 tells us that God is love. But how do we
love God?
But take diligent heed to do the commandment and
the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you, to love the Lord your God,
and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and
to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul. Joshua 22:5 (KJV)
*Name changed to protect privacy.
💓 Read other articles about True Love:
The Secret to True Love: The Fruit of the Spirit is Love
The Secret to True Love: Life Changing Love
The Secret to True Love: 2 Reasons You May Be Unhappy in Love
3 Steps to Long and Lasting Love: Step 2
No comments:
Post a Comment