Love the Lord Your God

Love the Lord Your God
Sunday, February 4, 2024 by Melissa McLaughlin

Memories of Love

My eyes welled up and a lump caught in my throat. While cleaning some piles of dusty books in the basement, my husband unearthed a few old photos of our children when they were young. I gazed at their tender faces, and recalled hearts of gold and smiles as sweet as honey.

It seems like only yesterday they were flitting around the house with beloved stuffed animals in hand. My heart flooded with memories of small fingers crafting artwork and long days of backyard playtime.

Love Comes From God

As I paused to reminisce about the love of our children, thoughts of God’s love intertwined. For God is the source of love. I was overcome at that these precious bonds of family love, and I was reminded that it all came from His heart. What a good, good Father.

Loving the Lord

When I step away for an interlude of remembrance and gratitude, my faith is renewed and my heart is refreshed to love God more. From there, the overflow of love extends to others. I find that meditating on God’s mercy, grace, and love in my life highlights the countless layers of God’s goodness enveloping our days.

Remember God’s Love

During my Bible reading later that week, I noticed how God invited His people to remember His love in the book of Deuteronomy. This time of reflection immediately preceded the famous Scripture about loving the LORD our God.

Love the Lord Your God

In the opening chapters of Deuteronomy, Moses reminded the Israelites who God is and what He has done. God delivered His people from slavery in Egypt, and protected and sustained them through forty years in the wilderness. They stood on the cusp of a new chapter in life, ready to enter the land God promised their forefathers in ages past.

As they prepared to enter the promised land, Moses proclaimed the command to love God, recorded in Deuteronomy chapter six. This same passage is later echoed by Jesus in Matthew 22:36-40.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 – “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

God commanded the Israelites to obey His laws. But God goes deeper than outward obedience. God looks upon the heart. He asks His followers to love Him from the heart with inward truth and devotion.

We should certainly study the Bible, pray, attend church, share the gospel message, help others, and more. But if we don’t love God from the heart, our actions can be superficial. God sees. God knows.

So How Do We Love God?

There are several ways to love God, as revealed through Scripture.

Obedience is Love in Action

One way to love the Lord is through obedience. This is loving God through our actions. Jesus taught, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). This same lesson is taught in 1 John 5:3 “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.”

When children follow their parents’ good and wise directions, it demonstrates their love and respect for parents. Similarly, when we follow God’s laws, we demonstrate our love and respect for Him.

Love in Words

Another way to love God is through our words. When we offer to God our gratitude and praise for who He is and what He has done, we are loving the Lord. Our love for God then flows through our words.

The Psalmist exclaims, “I love you, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold” (Psalm 18:1-2).

Our actions and words toward others reflect Christ’s heart in us, as well.

Remembering – Love From the Heart

In addition to loving through actions and words, God also instructs us to love Him with our hearts. When we look back over our lives, starting from the very earliest days, we reawaken memories of God’s protection, mercy, and love. This rekindles our love for Him.

Remembering God’s love for us in the past helps us love Him today. As we bring to mind His goodness in years gone by, our hearts are warmed afresh with love for God in the present. And this strengthens our faith in God for the future.

God taught this principle to His people later in Deuteronomy chapter six.

Deuteronomy 6:20-25 – “When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’

I invite you to pause right now. Think back over your life. Do you have a special memory of God’s love that stirs your heart and revives your love for Him? Let that soak in.

Holy Spirit, help us remember God’s love for us in the past, so we can love the LORD our God with all our hearts today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Bible Study
Join author and teacher, Melissa McLaughlin to discover the Truthful Grace and spiritual riches of studying God’s Word. Find joy in the knowledge of Jesus Christ through Biblical Growth and the life-changing truth of His Word.

Highest Praise: A Message from the Angels at Christmas
Melissa McLaughlin
12/23/2025

What Did the Angels Say at Christmas? Part 3
Melissa McLaughlin
12/15/2025

What Did the Angels Say at Christmas? Part 2
Melissa McLaughlin
12/8/2025

What Did the Angels Say at Christmas? Part 1
Melissa McLaughlin
12/1/2025

Why God Made Us For Himself
Melissa McLaughlin
10/26/2025

Be Still and Know that I am God
Melissa McLaughlin
10/13/2025

How is the Holy Spirit Like Oil?
Melissa McLaughlin
10/6/2025

How is the Holy Spirit Like a Dove?
Melissa McLaughlin
9/30/2025

How is God's Spirit Like Fire?
Melissa McLaughlin
9/22/2025

The End of the Line with Jesus
Melissa A. McLaughlin
8/25/2025

How Does the Ark of the Covenant Point to Christ
Melissa McLaughlin
8/11/2025

What Does it Mean to be a Citizen of Heaven?
Melissa McLaughlin
8/3/2025