What Does it Mean to Love God?

Intimacy with God is probably my favorite concept to talk about. Being close with God, hearing His voice, and feeling stirred by the things of Him bring me much delight and have absolutely changed my life. I believe it is what every human is made for. Yet, in all of this Truth, I have found in these most recent months that the tire of newness has left me longing for escape. What used to easily push me to sit with the Lord longer and pour my love on Him has now become difficult. I find myself sitting and scrolling more than usual. I find myself listening to non-worship music a bit more than I used to (not necessarily sinful, hope to write on this later). I have also found myself grumbling and falling into anxious patterns a bit more than usual. From where does this stem?

Flashback to sophomore year. The early moments and fresh love for the Lord were rampant in my life. My eyes had been opened to who God was and the finished work on the cross, and I was absolutely captivated. I felt bold. I felt empowered. I felt safe. This pushed me to have conversations where I had not before and to pray like I had not before. This year of my life has since been the foundation on which the Lord has used every season of my life thus far. Here, the Lord abundantly revealed Himself and formed disciplines in me that have remained. I look back on this year and smile—not because it was the peak of closeness with God, but because it was the beginning of discovering what loving God really means.

“If I speak with the tongues of mankind and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions to charity, and if I surrender my body so that I may glory, but do not have love, it does me no good,” 1 Corinthians 13:1–3, NASB.

This well-known passage that is typically shared at weddings talks about the weight of love. Love for God is the root of all godly things. It does not operate the other way around. I am reminded of the verse where Jesus says, “If you love Me, you will keep My commands,” John 14:15, NASB. If we love God, the things of God will naturally follow in our lives. Desiring to please God is a great virtue, but that desire must flow from the place of loving who God is first. In the passage in 1 Corinthians above, Paul goes to the extent of saying that even giving yourself up as a martyr for God without the source being love for Him means nothing. This begs the question: what does it mean to love?

The passage continues, stating, “Love is patient, love is kind; it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant. It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered; it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things,” 1 Corinthians 13:4–7, NASB. Love contains all of these attributes. Love means sacrifice. Love means commitment and endurance in difficulty. Love means selflessness. Love means forgiveness. Love is God.

When I now look back upon my sophomore year of high school, I realize that God had lavished His love on me and was beginning to teach me what loving Him truly looks like. In the years since then, I have walked through trials and struggles. I have experienced loss, confusion, pain, and exhaustion. But I have seen the faithfulness of God and His steadfast hand in every moment. I know that loving God is choosing Him continually. It is putting His desires and Truth above my own feelings and preferences. It is serving Him even when the emotional high wears off. It is staying faithful to Him as He has been to me. Wherever that leads, there I will go.

As I shared in the beginning, this season of life has felt wearisome to me. If it has felt the same for you, take heart. God has not changed, nor has His love for you. I encourage you to join me in returning to the things we did at first that we might burn within for Him again. Being deep in love with God is the only escape we were made for.

Rejoice that you are LOVED by God today, friend.

Kate