Are You In Love, Part 1

by Mike Reed, Director Student Ministries @ MBC Loudoun

We were in North Bay Maryland for our High School winter retreat a couple of weeks ago and I had one of those “moments.” You know, where you feel the love and passion of God so closely you can almost touch Him?  And I was just engulfed in feeling God’s love for me, but the strange thing is I heard a different question from Him coming into my little finite mind…he said “Mike, I know you know that I love you…but do you love me? Are you in love with me?

That was a powerful moment for me.  The question really is “are you in love with God?” Because we have to understand our goal…our goal as Christians is to PLEASE God, and we PLEASE God when we are in love with Him.  I think about my life, when my life is over, I don’t want to bring tons of people to the throne who are lukewarm, and say “here you go God, I’ve got all these people who kind of love you.” I want to bring the bride of Christ, people who are in LOVE with God…the kind of people where God looks down from heaven and he sees ANXIOUSLY awaiting him returning because we are so in love with Him. That is how a bride should respond right?  And we are the bridegroom of Christ?  Could you imagine if when I got married to my wife Kristin, I saw her walking down the isle and someone leaned over to me and said “that girl Kristin, she kind of loves you, she’s not totally sure yet.”

See when you are in love, it’s a lot easier to serve isnt it?  I remember one time I drove 2 and a ½ hours just to give Kristin a hug at college when she was having a bad day.  What makes a person do something like that? Love does. When you are in love, you’ll stay up late talking on the phone, you’ll spend tons of money, you’ll do ANYTHING, and that’s the way God wants us to approach him.

In Deuteronomy 6:5 Moses gives the great commandment.  And the great commandment isn’t to obey.  He says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

With EVERYTHING you got, love him.  First he says love God with your heart. That was the SEAT of your emotions; it’s where all your emotions came from.  He says love him with all the emotion you have.  At the same time that world heart meant the center of decisions, the center of where you make the decisions in your life.   It was the seat of decision making.  It was this complete love that had to do with your emotions but also the decisions you make and your emotions.  Than he says “love Him with your soul.” Your soul is the very center of your existence, of your personality; it’s the center of your being. There’s no soul there’s no person. Than he says “love Him with your strength.” He was talking about a physical strength, where you exert yourself and discipline and also a mental and spiritual strength.

So understand when God’s says I want you to love me, he says I want you to love me COMPLETELY. I want your emotions to love me, it all belongs to me, give it all to me, and only to me. There needs to be a love that is reserved for God. He tells us the love you have for me should be different.

And I was thinking about this…isn’t this AMAZING…that GOD WANTS US to LOVE HIM.  That I have a God who WANTS my love, he doesn’t just want me to DO stuff; He just wants my HEART?