Capacity to Love

 Read Deuteronomy 6:5 for yourself. A challenge is issued here in the Old Testament that Jesus refers back to in Matt 22:37. It is really simple. Simple to understand. More difficult to obey. 

Love the LORD your God. When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was He chose this one. Love the LORD your God. He went further. The challenge is to love God with all our heart. Every part of it. We are not supposed to love anyone or anything more than God. This command is broken all the time. People love family more than God. People love pets more than they love for God. People have greater affection for adulterous relations than for God. People can even treasure possessions and money more than they love and treasure God. Let's be honest. People love their favorite sports teams more than God. Do you see the zeal for the winning team and the heartbreak for the losing fans?

What does loving God with all your heart look like? It means that a person will have more affection for God than any other person. That includes parents, siblings, spouse, children, grandparents, and friends. Let that sink in. Take an honest look. Do you love any person more than you love God. You will find the answer partly in looking at whom you think about the most, want to spend the most time with, enjoy the most, and are the most fond of. NOBODY is supposed to get more of our affections than GOD, YAHWEH, JEHOVAH, ELOHIM. 

I prayed this morning for God to enlarge my capacity to love Him more. I know there is more room. There are opportunities to love Him more. One of those things is to learn more of Him. That is the way I learned to love Brenda. I spent time getting to know her. The more I learned about her the more I loved her. Now after 33 years of marriage, I know her more and love her infinitely more than I did when I married her on June 29, 1991. 

It stands to reason if we are ever going to love God more, we must spend time with Him learning more about Him and more of Him. In those God encounters we grow in our capacity to love Him more. 

Let me illustrate. On the night before our second son Tanner was born, I had a little private moment with our oldest son Taylor. Taylor was staying the night with my mother so Brenda and I could get up early to be at the hospital the next morning. Taylor was on our bed while I knelt on the floor next to him. I prayed silently, "God, how can I ever love another child as much as I love my son? It does not seem possible that I can ever love another child the way I love Taylor." 

Maybe I am the only parent who has ever prayed something like that. What I did not know then but do now, is that God creates and carves out new capacities to love. The moment I held Tanner in my arms instantaneously there was love every bit as equal as the love I have for his older brother. That has not changed. God created additional capacities for brothers Tucker and Turner as well. 

If God can do that for human relationships I am convinced He can also do that with our relationship with Him. To love God not just with all our hearts. Also, to love Him with all of our soul, mind and strength. I am resolved to love Him more in 2025 than I did in 2024. I trust He will enlarge my capacity to love Him. Will you do the same?