Love God - How Do You Show Your Love?
by Robert Baines

Love God with all that you have and love your neighbors, as you love yourself (see Mk. 12:29-31) are the two chief commandments for Christian growth.

So we would not be all the way out in left field somewhere, the Word of God teaches in John 14:15 that the way to demonstrate your love of God is to obey His commandments. Therefore, loving God should include the following:

1. Receiving the Word of God. Visit Christian-Living-Site.com/Word-of-God.html for an article on receiving the Word of God. You cannot love God, if you don't know Him. The best way to get to know more of Him is to prayerfully study His Word and strive to obey it.

Imagine claiming that you love your sweet heart but you don't spend any time reading his/her letters or talking with him/her (This is not a good fellas - smile). That is similar to one who claims to love God but never spends time prayerfully reading the Word of God.

So then to demonstrate that you love God, spend time receiving the word of God through personal devotionals, personal study visit christian-living-site.com/Personal-Bible-Study.html for an article on Personal Bible study), church based Bible study, and actively listening to Bible based preaching. However, I warn you, the more you know, the more God expects you to grow.

2. Worshipping God. You should show that you love God by worshipping God with enthusiasm. Visit Christian-Living-Site.com/Christian-Worship.html for an article on Christian worship. Since God is so great, He deserves to be greatly praised (see Ps. 96:4).

Even if the choir cannot sing, the ushers are ugly, the trustees are untrustworthy, the Pastor is no good, and the pews are filled with hypocrites, God is still great and to be greatly praised. Christian worship includes participating in prayer, singing, receiving the Word of God, giving (visit Christian-Living-Site.com/Christian-Giving.html for an article on Christian giving), and interacting.

As you participate in these five elements, you should always be concerned with glorifying God (i.e., expressing your appreciation and allegiance to God) and edifying other believers (i.e., your body language can encourage or discourage others).

Don't forget evangelizing unbelievers (i.e., unbelievers should look at you and say, "I want some of what makes them respond like that.").

3. Christian Giving. Matthew 6:21 teaches that where a person's treasures are there is also where the person's heart is. In other words, even if a person sings a beautiful version of "I Surrender All" but does not even surrender a dime out of a dollar, their behavior is not lined up with the lyrics of their song.

Click here for an article on Christian giving. When we don't tithe, we are compared to robbers of God (see Mal. 3:8-10). Robbing God and loving God are opposites. When we think about all that God has done for us, we should be more than ashamed to argue about giving to Him in proportion to how He has given to us.

4. Striving to obey the Word of God. John 14:15 teaches that a great evidence of loving God is to obey His commandments. As fore stated, in the introduction of this article, the two chief commandments are to love God with all that we have and to love our neighbors, as we love ourselves (see Mk. 12:29-30).

As you worship, give, and receive God's word, God will show you more and more of His will. God has principles to live by for singles, married people, parents, children, and relatives. God has principles to live by on our job, if we are the boss or the employee. God has principles for us to live by in our communities.

God has principles for every area of our lives. To love God means that we will strive to understand and obey His will in every area of our lives.

In summary, receiving the Word of God, worshipping, giving, and obeying are ways to demonstrate our love of God. When we think about how much God has done for us, we should strive to demonstrate how much we love and thank God for being such an awesome God in our lives.

Dr. Robert E. Baines, Jr.  uses his doctorate of ministry degree and twenty years of pastoral experience to provide quality and helpful Christian living information to 1,000's of visitors a month. 

Make sure you secure your free copy of his ebooklet, "How to Encourage Yourself: 21 Practical Tips," and sign up for his newsletter that features great articles, helpful devotionals, and Bible based teaching notes at www.RobertBaines.com.

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