Two-Way Street

You know, I always see posts about how much God loves US, and everything He does for US. Which is fine, He does do SO MUCH for us, He HAS done so much for us. We should celebrate it, absolutely.

But, why is our relationship with Him a one-way street? Imagine your marriage relationship. If you were to show affection to your spouse, and they never reciprocated, or rarely reciprocated... wouldn't that be a terrible relationship? You'd probably become depressed and lonely, right? You may even think about divorce.

So, how do we show God we love Him? We can't come up with an arbitrary answer here. Think of that book - "The 5 Love Languages" - it talks about how every person has their own "love language" - how they feel loved. There is quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service and physical touch. You may find that you feel loved through more than one of those outlets, or simply one over the others. In any case, if your love language is words of affirmation, and your spouse doesn't typically provide you with those words of affirmation, you may find yourself feeling unloved.

So, let's then forego the arbitrary answer we *think* may be right and look to God's Word to let HIM tell us how He feels loved.

1 John 5:3 tells us pretty explicitly,

"To love God means that we obey his commandments. Obeying his commandments isn’t difficult."

Even Jesus tells us how we show our love for Him in John 14:15,

"If you love me, you will obey my commandments."

Many will say that our worship is an act of love, and I would agree with you. John 4:23-24 tells us that God is looking for those who worship Him properly,

"Indeed, the time is coming, and it is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. The Father is looking for people like that to worship him. God is a spirit. Those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

We must worship Him in spirit AND in truth.

The word for "spirit" there is G4151 pneuma, which means by mental disposition. So, we must worship God by having our minds set on Him, maybe it's better to say our intent set on Him. We must intend on worshipping Him. But there's an important word after the word "spirit" - AND. We must worship God in Spirit AND in truth. Not one, not the other. BOTH.

The word for "truth" there is G225 aletheia, which means - well, truth. So we must worship God according to intent and according to FACTS. Where do we get the facts about God? His Word. His Word tells us the truth about Him. So, we are told that God's love language is obedience to His commandments. I would challenge us today to make sure we are in a TWO-way relationship with the Father, and not such a relationship where we reap all the benefit, but He is left in the dust. <3