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Written by Ilca Medeiros, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Brazil
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Mt 22:36-40 NIV)
When we are called to talk about love for God, we almost automatically begin to talk about His love for us. We can do this excellently because it is a perfect and spotless love. When we become aware of such great love and such an impactful example, we come across a commandment (Mt 22:36-40), which would not make sense to us if it did not come from God: “Love”! It is not a love of only feelings, but of action. The Bible says that we should love Him above all things and this love is a reflection of God's unconditional love for us. First John 4:19 says, “We love because he first loved us.” When we feel this love for God, we want to please Him, obey Him, and serve Him with a heart full of gratitude.
The first source of love for God according to Matthew 22:36-40 is the HEART.
A clean heart without bitterness and resentment is a fertile land for cultivating love, which spreads to everyone around us. Whoever loves God with all their heart longs to be with Him, draws closer to Him, and develops intimacy through prayer, communion, and His Word. We like to be around those we love. So it should be with God. He doesn't need anything we have. Not even our love. Now we can imagine our Creator rejoicing in the fact that we love Him with all our hearts! I know that we are capable of feeling such love, of being side by side with Him every day, because He Himself promised in Matthew 28:20 that He would be with us every day. On good days and bad days. Just hold His hand.
God knows how much we love Him by the way we treat our brothers and sisters. How we are connected to each other, how we see each other, how we care for and serve those in need. “...Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister” (1Jn 4:21).
The second source of love for God according to Matthew 22:36-40 is the SOUL.
Our soul is the center of our attitudes. It leads us to practice what comes from the heart. It's feeling in practice! The word soul comes from the Latin animu which means “that which animates”. It reveals our personality; it is the center of our will. Loving God with our soul means leaving behind everything that imprisons us and prevents us from serving. It's denying ourselves when love requires sacrifice and change.
When we love God in our souls, we seek communion with our brothers and sisters even when our bodies are tired and we don't want to go to church. We still strive to offer God the best of ourselves with attitudes that please Him.
What our soul feels reflects in our body and our actions. We cannot forget to feed our souls with good things so that every offering of love to God has a sweet aroma. We become weak in our souls when we leave God out of our battles.
The third source of love for God according to Matthew 22:36-40 is UNDERSTANDING.
When we make the decision to serve God, we are asked if we understand the importance of our decision, and we say yes. We understand that from then on, our lives are linked to God for eternity. Once the initial thrill has passed, it is worth reflecting on: Who is God for us? What difference does He make in our lives? Are our relationships influenced by Him?
The way we understand our new life in Christ makes us grateful, happy, and full of hope. We return to God a love that comes from Him. To understand His love, it is necessary for Him to live in us, as there is no other source of understanding this love other than in Him. The same God who loves us in practice, commands us to love Him. We are not obligated, but motivated to love Him by understanding that He is everything in us, knowing that He is our Creator, Father of Love, and Protector.
We love God when we understand the size of the connection we have with Him. We love not only in moments of blessings received but based on His feelings for us. Constant, continuous, and unconditional.
We can make a list of things we still are not doing to demonstrate our love for God. This love must be contagious. May everyone around us know how much we love Him, and may they want to know Him.
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Written by Marbella Parra, volunteer with Iron Rose Sister Ministries in Honduras
In my Christian life, I have gone through different stages. There have been times when I have felt that I was doing things for God, but I didn't really feel close to Him. More than once, I have wondered how I can diagnose and evaluate my spiritual life. Have you ever felt the same way or asked yourself the same question? What method can we use to evaluate our spiritual life and our relationship with God? In this blog article, we will analyze the teachings of the apostle Paul in Galatians 5 and Romans 8 to define what spirituality is and learn how to create our own thermometer to analyze our relationship with God.
When we talk about spirituality, we tend to confuse some aspects. Many times, we qualify as spiritual, someone who practices spiritual disciplines, that is, someone who prays, meditates on the Scriptures, and attends services, among other things. However, while spiritual disciplines lead us to spirituality, they are not the definitive sign that we are truly spiritual. As we read Romans 8 and Galatians 5, we note that the apostle Paul describes a spiritual person as one who is led by the Holy Spirit to produce His fruit (e.g. love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness and self-control in Gal 5:22-23). In this sense, being spiritual is not so much about a set of activities we perform but about a state: a level of connection with God. At this level of relationship with God, the Holy Spirit greatly influences us, enabling us to have attitudes that reflect Christ's character and abandon carnal attitudes.
Unfortunately, many of us have reversed the formula. We believe that through great willpower we must reach a level of perfection that allows us to be worthy of God. However, the good news is that even though we are unworthy, through Jesus' sacrifice, we have the opportunity to be forgiven and receive the Holy Spirit. In the letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul states that we are adopted as children of God and receive the Spirit by which we can call Him "Daddy." What a powerful and consoling message! This means that if we want to develop the character of Christ, the only way to do so is to seek God with a humbled heart and entrust ourselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The formula is that the more we seek Him and humble ourselves before Him, the closer we are to God, and we are transformed and empowered by His Holy Spirit.
We can then say that a heart that is close to God is one that humbles itself before Him and rests in the grace received through Jesus. The result of this is a person who is in a process of sanctification through the guidance of the Holy Spirit to live in the image of Christ. With this in mind, our actions are a sign of our nearness or distance from God. If a person is close to God, he will reflect Him through the fruit of the Spirit, but also, a person who is far from Him will reflect Him through the fruit of the flesh. In short, my sinful actions are the symptoms of drifting away from God, and my good deeds are the symptoms of becoming close to Him.
From this, we can create a personal spiritual thermometer that helps us identify in ourselves how close or far we are from God. A thermometer needs a positive measurement scale, so for this part, we will use the fruit of the Holy Spirit as a reference. We also need a negative measurement scale for which we will use the fruit of the flesh. Our diagnostic process (which should be daily) involves evaluating our attitudes, thoughts, and words throughout the day and seeing in which direction they move. Are my actions, thoughts, and words a reflection of the fruit of the Holy Spirit? If the answer is no, this is a symptom that our heart is not close to God. At those times, let’s set aside time to seek His presence, repent, and ask for His guidance and the control of His Holy Spirit. If the answer is yes, let us give glory to God because we know that the good that is in us does not come from our effort, but from the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, so we must continue to seek Him daily to continue to be perfected in Him.
Would you be willing to use this spiritual thermometer every day? Do you think it would help you grow in your commitment to God?