“Understand, therefore, that the LORD your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.” (Deuteronomy 7:9, NLT)
Love. We talk about it, write poems and novels about it, and teenage girls swoon when dreaming about it. Love is difficult to define because there are so many kinds of love, and we all view it from our own perspective. There’s romantic love, parental love, the love of friends, selfless love, and “puppy” love (a crush). The greatest love is God’s sacrificial, enduring love for us.
Have you ever heard the story of the wife who never heard the affirmative words of love she desired from her husband? Finally, she confronted him. “You never tell me you love me,” she complained. The man, obviously not given to mushy sentiment, was puzzled at this. “Well, I told you I loved you when we got married, and I haven’t changed my mind.” He assumed she would just know he loved her. He took their love for granted.
The old saying that actions speak louder than words may be true, but verbalizing our love is important too. We need both actions and words to show our love.
There are numerous ways we demonstrate our love for another. Some of our love actions may include:
- Spending quality time together.
- Valuing the other’s needs and happiness.
- Doing special things for them.
- Caring about the things they care about.
Thinking about this clueless husband story made me wonder if I ever treat God the same way the man did his wife. Am I so casual with our relationship that I never put my feelings into words? Yes, He does know my every thought, but I still need to express my love to Him with words as well as actions.
How do we express our love for God? In much the same way as we do in human relationships. We spend time with Him, do special thing for Him, and care about the things He cares about. Most importantly, we make Him first in our life.
God’s love for us is selfless and committed. Deuteronomy 7:9 says He lavishes His love on us when we obey His commands. Can we do any less for Him? Joshua 22:5 recounts the instructions of Moses to the Israelites. They were “to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments and to cling to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul” (ESV).
How long has it been since you lavished love on the Lord? Hopefully you tell Him every day—and several times a day—how important He is to you. Don’t take Him for granted. Speak words of love to Him.
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