Hosanna Restoration Church

God said, “You shall love the Lord your God.” It occurred to me as I considered this verse again that even though it is the first and greatest commandment; it is also a prophetic statement. For once we truly understand His great love for us we will in fact love Him. When we know His love and love Him back, we certainly will want no other God’s before us, nor will we yield ourselves to defy any of His other wishes. For this to be a reality in our lives, we really do need to love Him. Acknowledging His existence is not loving Him. Loving Him is loving Him.

I found myself feeling anxious recently about how to love Him right. It was a very strange feeling and it lasted for quite some time. I prayed. I worshipped. I dreamt a little. I imagined a little and still I wondered about whether or not I loved Him enough. It was a wrestling match of sorts. I was not wrestling with God; I was wrestling with me.

I think the root of it was that the more I understood how very much God loves me I had to ask myself what I was doing to repay that love. Well there is no way to repay it, but there has to be a way to reciprocate. In the end it is obvious that we cannot pay it back so we must pay it forward and the only way to pay it forward perfectly is by the direction of God.

In order to love God, we must desire to love God. Thankfulness will certainly stir those feelings as well as a sense of needing God. Yes it should be emotional. We should be emotional when it comes to love for God. Do not believe the devils lie that we should not be emotional when it comes to God. If there is no emotion there is probably no relationship.

Back to the wrestling match; I finally asked God to please make some sense of it. I mean I had been from loving God because He is wonderful to how can I, or am I, loving Him enough, to how loving God or not loving God affects the nation and some other rather strange stuff that I am still processing. I said, “Lord I need some relief here. A long list will not do because I would probably have a hard time remembering it, though I realize You would help me remember it, but help me out.”

In response He reminded of how I approach a wedding rehearsal with folks. We all come wanting to make it great and memorable. Because of this we will all do our part on queue and if anyone misses their part, someone will remind them and we will just enjoy the whole process. With that in mind I understood that each day is simply a rehearsal with the Lord prepared to lead. We present ourselves daily letting Him know we are there to make it a great day with His guidance. We know that our greatest purpose in life is to love Him and to walk in His love.

Are you in place? Do you want to be in place? We can trust Him to do His part!