"And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full" (Deut 11:13-15) Sometimes I wonder why God wants us to love Him. What does God need our love for? He is self-sufficient, in need of nothing and in want of nothing. He is the ultimate provider and the source of all things. Why then does He continuously stress the importance of us loving Him? Why does God want us to love Him? As this month of love draws to a close, I wish to bring our minds back to the scripture passage that God gave to me as He spoke to me concerning this month. It is that scripture that bear the mind of God and why He wants us to love Him!.
Deuteronomy 11:13-15 bears the reason why God wants us to love Him. If you read that passage carefully you will realise that God carefully revealed within the words of that scripture the reason He wants us to love Him. First, it is human to think that when someone asks us to love them, it is because they need us and wants something from us. But the situation with God is different.
As I read through that scripture, and the command given to Israelite, I realize that the command to love did not begin with the New Testament. From the word go, God has wanted and demanded that we love Him. The reason God wants us to love is not just because He is our creator and so He wants us to love because of it. No. He is not asking us to love Him so that we can make Him greater or make Him "more God". He is already complete, already full, already the greatest! If we choose not to love God, it does not remove anything from God. There is this song we sing:
"We lift your name higher" (4x). The song has no other lyrics except "We lift your name higher" which is repated four times. Then we chorus: "Shout Halle - halleluyah!" another four times. Well, the problem with that song is that we cannot not lift God's name higher than it already is. God's name is already at the highest of the high! Singing that we want to lift His name higher implies that there is a height that His name hasn't reached!
I say this to state the fact that we cannot do anything to improve God. God does not need us, we need Him! If God asks us to do anything for Him, it is because there is a benefit He wants us to derive from doing that!
"Can a man be of benefit to God? Can even a wise person benefit him? What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous? What would he gain if your ways were blameless?" (Job 22:2-3, NIV)
God does not need our love. We are the ones who need to love God, and here is the reason - "That [He (God)] will give you (us) the rain of your (our) land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou (we) mayest gather in thy (our) corn, and...be full" Simply put, God wants us to love Him so that He may bless. Our love is the seed that God uses to prosper our handwork. He says love me so that I can send you rain, and corn, and wine and oil, and you will eat and be full!
That is why God demands our love, so that He may bless us with it! May God bless you as you set your heart to love Him!