Loving God

“’You should love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38) We have all heard this thousands of times during our journey as Christians. However, if I were to ask you to solely concentrate on loving God, how would you go about it? Is your first impulse to direct your behavior towards acts of loving your neighbor or even loving yourself as a means of loving God? It is true that Jesus said that the second commandment to love your neighbor as yourself is closely related, but what would it mean to focus purely on loving God?

FIRST STEP

Probably the first step is being willing to set aside even a small amount of time to direct your attention to God. Think about spending 20 minutes of uninterrupted time contemplating God in a loving way. Actually, it is not so easy to do. First, try it and note your own experience. Then you might want to learn more about what some others have written in this area. Perhaps one of the best is Thomas Merton and the practice of Centering Prayer. What Merton offers is a form of prayer beyond words and thoughts focused wholly on God. It is a powerful way of resting in the presence of God.

SCRIPTURE

While prayer is a central way that we might be loving towards God, another might be receiving God’s gift of Scripture. If you give a gift to someone you love, seeing them appreciate and make use of that gift brings you pleasure. Especially if you notice that in using that gift, they are directing their attention on you in a loving way. Might it be the same for God who has provided us the gift of Scripture?

I’ve heard of ancient rabbis spending a whole day contemplating a single word of Scripture but I’m not sure that is the way to begin. Rather, determine to set aside one half-hour in which you will spend time allowing Scripture to speak to you about the attributes of God.

You might want to use a concordance to identify some adjectives that praise God. Gather up several of them and then spend some time exploring the nature of God through these adjectives. That might come in the form of a word study or it might be in the form of contemplation around one or two of these adjectives. Whatever your approach, the purpose is to focus your attention on the wonder of God.

The time limit of one-half hour might even serve the advantage of intriguing you so that you want to set aside another half-hour at another time to continue the experience. Discipline yourself to avoid thinking of how useful your work might be for a sermon, a class, etc. This is time to purely place yourself in the presence of God in a loving way.

SCHOOL OF PRAYER

Dietrick Bonhoeffer spoke of the psalms as a school for prayer. It is interesting to take seriously that possibility in learning how to spend time loving God. For one of the times that you choose to spend loving God, choose one of the psalms of praise and let it shape your thoughts and words of love for God.

For example, begin with one of the most familiar psalms, Psalm 23. It is so familiar that it is difficult to experience it fresh. Yet it is a very good path to follow as an experience of loving God. Take the psalm and replace the pronouns with your name. “The Lord is xxx’s shepherd, etc.” Then slowly pray the psalm, without text if possible, stopping regularly to reflect on how each part evokes feelings about God.

Next, replace the words that are meant to speak of God with the second person pronoun. For example, “You are my shepherd, I shall not want.” Again, pause repeatedly to note your feelings about God.

Allow the psalm to frame your loving contemplation of God. You could also use other psalms of praise in the same manner. Make it very personal as if you are in direct communication with God.

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