Command 39 : Love the Lord | Day 268

Love God With All Your Heart!

Imagine an athlete, a young man who has been training for years to qualify for the Olympics as a runner. Every day he is up before dawn, preparing his body and mind for the competition that consumes his thoughts. He lives and breathes to run. As the week of the Olympic trials finally draws near, how much time does he devote to thinking about other pursuits and interests? He doesn't have time for them! They are distractions to his one goal--achieving his dream of qualifying for the Olympics. This intense, all-consuming passion for a single goal should characterize our love for God.

To love God is to maintain an ever-deepening search to discover and enjoy His true nature, character, and power.

It is this intense search for God that He desires and rewards. Thus, He states, “Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). It is halfhearted, casual interest in God that makes a person vulnerable to attractive worldly distractions. These distractions draw our hearts away from God, choke out His Word, and cause us to leave our first love. (See Mark 4:18-19 and Revelation 2:4.)

In speaking of his wholehearted search, David said, “One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in his temple” (Psalm 27:4). Paul also testified to this continual seeking after God when he stated, “... That I may know him [Jesus], and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings ...” (Philippians 3:10).

David advises all who want to love God, "Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore” (Psalm 105:4).

We discern the "face of the Lord" with our spirit. Seeking His face is seeking His favor. Just as we can sense from a person's facial expressions whether or not we are bringing him pleasure or displeasure or receiving his approval or disapproval, through God's Word we can seek His face and discern what brings Him pleasure and receives His approval.

David enjoyed fellowship with God as he communed with the Lord through His Word. He made this communion an active part of his life as he went to sleep, got up in the night watches, and awakened in the morning. (See Psalm 4:8, 5:1.)

Love is not a static condition. It is a dynamic, active relationship. Living moment by moment in the presence of the Lord and seeking His face is one of the primary ways we love God. “... In thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:11).

King Uzziah discovered the rewards of seeking the Lord. “... As long as he sought the LORD, God made him to prosper” (II Chronicles 26:5). One of the wisest decisions we can make is the decision to love the Lord with all our hearts and continually seek after Him. Let's demonstrate that love for God by communing with Him through His Word.