Loving God

IT'S ABOUT GOD POD

Most people hope for an extraordinary love. They want a head-over-heels, once-in-a-lifetime relationship that is both passionate and enduring. Hit movies, best-selling novels, and dating websites all bank on our hope for a great romance.

However, the greatest love wasn’t born in a movie or a classic novel; it was authored by God himself when he created you in his image. His singular desire has always been a passionate, enduring relationship with you. Like us, God wants nothing less than the greatest love story.

LOVE WITH PASSION AND PURPOSE

God has a single expectation for a relationship with you. He spells out his desire in the Bible: “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”2

He makes it very clear that he wants “all” of you. He wants all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength invested in your relationship with him. More than anything, he craves a relationship in which you are “all in.”

Anyone who has been all in knows that loving passionately is about loving purposefully. The two elements feed each other: Your passion drives your purpose. Your purpose feeds your passion.

An “all in” kind of love is the sum of the little choices we make each day. Gary Chapman, author of The Five Love Languages, said, “Our most basic emotional need is not to fall in love. It’s to be genuinely loved by another, to know a love that grows out of reason and choice, not instinct. I need to be loved by someone who chooses to love me, who sees in me something worth loving.”3

What are the daily choices you can make to love God passionately? Thankfully, because you’re a reflection of him, you can begin by simply asking yourself, How do I hope to be loved? You already have what it takes to create an extraordinary relationship with God.

Let’s look at each of the ways God wants your love.