Love God, Love Others
So here we go, 3 for 3. I apologize in advance for my disjointed thoughts
Ive been thinking about the 2 greatest commandments,
1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart mind and soul
2. Love you neighbour as yourself
Ive always figured that the reason that loving God is first, is simply because He is the greatest. He is God so he deserves our love first. As I was pondering this I realized that there is another reason. It is simply this. It is impossible to love others. Only if we love God first will we be able to love those around us. Loving God looks like loving others. Let me see if I can explain this.
I have spent so much time and energy trying to love others and every time I just burn out or get burnt. Then I come home and think I should spend some time with God. By then I am too exhausted or empty to put anything into a relationship with Him. I realized that if I am to love God with ALL my heart soul and mind that means there is no part of me left to love others or myself. That must mean that by loving God with everything in me, I will love others. My focus must be on loving God.
This brings me to a new dilemma. I have never been very good at loving anyone. I dont really know how. So how then do I love God? If love is a choice and not a feeling then there must be a way to love him. Ive decided not to spend anymore effort on loving others. Instead I am going to focus my time on getting to know this God who I am to love. If I can pour out my heart into him, then maybe, just maybe, He will disperse it to those around me. Maybe if he can help me love those around me, one day He will help me love myself.
Ive been thinking about the 2 greatest commandments,
1. Love the Lord your God with all your heart mind and soul
2. Love you neighbour as yourself
Ive always figured that the reason that loving God is first, is simply because He is the greatest. He is God so he deserves our love first. As I was pondering this I realized that there is another reason. It is simply this. It is impossible to love others. Only if we love God first will we be able to love those around us. Loving God looks like loving others. Let me see if I can explain this.
I have spent so much time and energy trying to love others and every time I just burn out or get burnt. Then I come home and think I should spend some time with God. By then I am too exhausted or empty to put anything into a relationship with Him. I realized that if I am to love God with ALL my heart soul and mind that means there is no part of me left to love others or myself. That must mean that by loving God with everything in me, I will love others. My focus must be on loving God.
This brings me to a new dilemma. I have never been very good at loving anyone. I dont really know how. So how then do I love God? If love is a choice and not a feeling then there must be a way to love him. Ive decided not to spend anymore effort on loving others. Instead I am going to focus my time on getting to know this God who I am to love. If I can pour out my heart into him, then maybe, just maybe, He will disperse it to those around me. Maybe if he can help me love those around me, one day He will help me love myself.
posted by Stahled at
9:20 PM
4 Comments:
I have to admit that I don't love my neighbors. Rednecks, every one of them!
But I think you're onto something here.
Charmaine and I have been having a bit of an ongoing discussion lately about Bible studies and whether its okay to make someone feel guilty for not participating (eg: buying the book, doing the homework) at the level that the rest of the group is.
I think the whole "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink" thing applies here. The desire know God and seek him has to come first and no amount of guilt or pressure can create that desire. However, once a person arrives at that point and begins spending time learning about God and pursuing a relationship will Him, they will also begin to truly learn what it means to love God.
That's the point at which they become empowered to love others. I use "empowered" deliberately in the sense of being "invested with legal or official authority". When our relationship with God is deep enough and strong enough, He empowers us, and commands us, to love one another.
Anyway, I used to get annoyed when the same three people would comment on every single one of my blog entries. I hope I'm not annoying you.
Ah.... how I can relate to your thoughts! I so admire your honesty! I remember sitting in a group crying my eyes out, saying 'I can't love people because I don't even like me!'.
And I continue to learn, like you, that I can let God not only love me but love others through me.
I agree. Loving my neibour is the "heart response" I "do" after loving God. There really is no good thing in me. Any good manufactured through me, is through Jesus.
On the cross, Jesus said about his murderers..."forgive them..."
Only the love OF God could enable the innocent Jesus to utter those words....and mean them!
love your neighbor AS yourself...
Makes me wonder...can I love my neighbor if I can't love myself?
I fall in love with God when I start to fathom how much he loves me, delights in me, values me, respects me.
I love him because he first loved me...
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