We Are Defined by Our Love for God

A. Deut. 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord
your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” Our love for God is the defining characteristic that determines our actions in life. If there is one fixed point around which our lives and the defining characteristics of our personality revolve, the love of God should be it.
There is no statement more fundamental, far?reaching or important than the famous statement of Moses to Israel: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” When asked what was the greatest commandment in God’s law, Jesus quoted this text (Matt. 22:37). This reveals the single most important reason and motivation for living our lives.
a. The object of your love and affection is a statement about your character. What do
you live for, for whom do you live? What controls and motivates your choices and
decisions in life? What you love most in life makes a comment, to everyone
around you, about your character. And believe me when I say, “Character really
counts,” That is an absolute, undeniable truth.
(A) Arsene Houssaye said, “Tell me whom you love, and I will tell you what you
are.” This is undeniably true with respect to your relationship with God. If
someone wants to make an assessment of your character, all they need to know
is the answer to one question: how deep is your love for our Creator?
When that question has been answered accurately, the very root of your personal being will have been discovered. And if the truth is that you do not love God, then nothing else can compensate for that deficiency.
To “love Him with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength” means that many other concerns (some of which, by themselves, are quite important) must be subordinated to our love for God. And this is not something you do once and then forget about it. It is an every day matter. A daily decision with which we are faced constantly. When we neglect this daily decision to love God, it doesn’t take long for us to become selfish, carnal and enemies of the cross.
(1) We must renounce all other loves for the love of God and find in and with Him, all the loves which, for his sake, we had foregone.
(2) Acts 20:32.

Spur - 01/05/03 pm