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Why Do You Love God?

             When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:3)

            The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

             We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (II Corinthians 10:5)

             Spiritual Hypochondriacs, raise your hands. I’m reading a book called Bold Love by Dan Allender, and much of what I’ve read so far has focused on how bad we are at loving – and he’s right. But that may be the reason for my thoughts last night. Or, I  may be being attacked spiritually, attacking myself (which isn’t unusual), or God may reveal something I need to recognize. But no matter the reason, it’s a thought worth considering.

            Why do you love God? Do you want to love God more or better? Why? If you want to be good, righteous, kind, loving, compassionate, gracious, humble, or (name that positive thing), why do you want to be those things?

            While praying last night, I mentioned wanting to love God more or better, and slammed into that question. “Why?”

            My answer was that if I loved God the way I should love God, then God would find me acceptable. I could “hold my head up” and meet with Him as equals. Now, put aside the ridiculous possibility that we could ever hold our heads up and meet with God as equals. Focus more deeply on the motivation behind the idea. The goal is to love well enough – do enough work of the sort we call “loving” – that I would be acceptable to God. It’s not because He’s God, worthy, loving, perfect, beautiful, etc., though He is all those things and more.  He’s not the focus. I am.

            None of us are as good at loving God or each other as we should be, and even if we are as good at loving God as we should be for one second, we aren’t every second. If you don’t like your answer to why you love God or how you love God, pray to love Him more and better, even if your reasons are bad. As He answers the prayer and you grow to love Him more and better, your motives will change.

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