How do we Love God?

The Bible tells us to love God and to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. The command to love our neighbour is a huge subject, which I write more about, in more detail later. But how do we love God, when he doesn’t necessarily need our love and there is nothing we can do to help him or care for him?

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’”

Luke 10:27 NLT

Types of love

• We could be talking about ‘falling in love’ which is more to do with our emotions than how we treat other people.

• Loving our neighbour means treating my neighbour as I treat myself -it is primarily practical rather than emotional.
• We could be talking about love in a family situation between husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters. This is built into us as human beings and to much of the animal kingdom.

Gods love for us

Jesus came to this earth to show us that God loves us so much that he sent His son down to this earth. God is neither male or female, but is usually described as a father and sometimes as a mother. He created, and loves the human race, and each individual, in the same way that a parent loves their children.

How do we love God?

So how do we love God? Does God need our love? – probably not. We cannot do anything practical to help Him. Can we have an emotional attachment to a God, who is so great, and above us? I think we can love God in the following ways:

• We can love God in the way that a small child loves their parent(s). A father or mother who truly loves their child can receive a reciprocal love from that child. A small child is totally dependent on their parents, but can respond to the parents love with a love of their own.
• We can love God because He loved us first. The natural response to, “I love you” is to say, “I love you too”.
• We can love God because He is our creator . In the same way that as a child we can love our parents because we owe our very existence to them.
• We can love God as a sign of respect because he is so much greater and wiser than we are.
• We can love God by being obedient to His wishes for our lives. He knows us through and through and only wants the best for us, so it is in our own interests to be obedient, and in that way, to show our love for Him.
• About all, God wants a relationship with us! It is an amazing fact that the creator of the universe loves us as individuals and wants a relationship with us! By accepting that relationship, we can show a true love for God.