Four Ways to Love God More
How do we love God more? How do we have heart for God like King David had? King David was known as a man after God’s own heart, but yet he was an adulterer, a murderer and an absentee dad. So why would Scripture paint him in such a positive light? Here are four reasons.
1. David was enamored with God. He was mesmerized with his Father in Heaven. God was everything and he kept his focus on God 24-7. I remember when I first got engaged. I remember that I couldn’t keep my eyes off my engagement ring, even as I was driving down the road. It was beautiful, especially when the light hit the diamond. God wants us to focus on him like that. David was constantly praising him. “LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!” (Psalm 8:1) “I say to the LORD, you are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing” (Psalm 16:2). “Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle” (Psalm 24:8). We have a tendency to ask God to answer our prayers, especially when things aren’t going so well, but we don’t always praise him enough. How do we yield our heart’s to God? How do we have a heart like God’s? We praise him. Because that is how we can draw closer to him. In Psalm 100:4, it says “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.” To have an intimate relationship with the Lord, we have to start with praise.
2. David trusted God. Even when things looked dire, he trusted God to protect him and to defeat his enemies. God was the first place David went not the last. There was a period of time where David was on the run, hiding in caves because King Saul had become jealous of him and wanted to kill him. But he had been anointed to be King of Israel. He trusted God to make that happen and this was a momentary setback. One of my favorite passages is in Psalm 37, where David says “Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:3-4). David learned the secret, when we finally realize how much the Lord loves us even in the midst of difficult circumstances, and we trust him during those times, at some point he’ll give us the desires of our heart.
What I’ve realized as he has shaped me, through good and bad, is that the desires of my heart are no longer mine. My desire is to do the will of my Father. When we turn over the control of our lives to him, he will draw our hearts to him and we’ll desire what he desires.
3. David loved God with his whole heart. In the book of Isaiah, the Lord spoke about his chosen ones as a rebellious people. One of the reasons was because “their whole heart was afflicted.” In other words, nothing they did made God feel like they loved him. God said they turned their backs on him. They didn’t pray anymore. They were worshipping other idols and participating in pagan festivals. Israel was like a rebellious child. Perhaps you have a prodigal child who you are praying for? You may be wondering, “What did I do to deserve this? Haven’t I taken care of him all these years? Wasn’t I at all his school events? Haven’t I loved him unconditionally? What do I need to do to get him back?”
But don’t you see, that’s the way our Father looks at us. What did I do to deserve this? I’ve clothed them. I’ve provided for them. They have a roof over their heads. I’ve loved them, yet they don’t acknowledge me. They don’t even want a relationship with me. When we have a divided heart toward God he feels like we do when our children don’t love us like we would desire.
But God was David’s rock. He was respectful of his Father. He appreciated all he had done for him. He knew he was a safe place to go. In Psalm 71, David says, “Be my rock of refuge to which I can always go; give the command to save m, for you are my rock and my fortress” (Psalm 71: 3). Then he says in Psalm 73, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you” (Psalm 73:25). Have the things on Earth let you down? We have to finally learn that God will never let us down. He is the constant rock we can climb onto during times of trouble.
4. David believed in God’s love. Do you believe God loves you? Do you believe he wants the best for you? Or do you have trouble believing that God could love you after all you’ve done? But David got it. He understood the love of God. He bathed in it. In Psalm 36:5-6 he described the love of God beautifully “Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, LORD, preserve both people and animals. How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!”
I recently saw something on Facebook prompting the readers to think about all the near death experiences they’ve had. I started to think about mine. I was hit by a car in junior school. I flipped over my bike handlebars in high school going down a steep hill. I was in a news helicopter crash. I had a very serious illness, Toxic Shock Syndrome, known to kill people and I was hit in the head with someone’s drive on the golf course. You could hear the crack of the ball connecting with my head for a few holes. Two inches from my temple. Two inches from sudden death.
So as I look at this praise from David, I think, Out of your love, LORD, you have preserved my life. How priceless is your unfailing love, O God toward me! For some reason, he preserved me life. What has God preserved you from?
If you are not doing it already, make this the day to love the Lord with all your heart, your soul and your strength. Learn from David who realized there’s no one else who loves us more.