Jesus demonstrated His love for us by dying on the cross to pay the ransom for all that want to be free. We were all being held hostage by whatever controls us, enslaved by sinful desires. The road to freedom begins by walking away from our hostage taker and toward the one who paid our ransom. We start trusting Jesus as Lord and Savior. We are then are given the right to become children of God and can have a personal relationship with Him. Most of us will have to be rescues again and again until we start doing the first commandment ~ to love the Lord God with all your heart, soul and mind. But what is love?                                                                 

      Psalms 91:14 sheds light on what love is. Let’s just look at the very first sentence; God is speaking, and He says, “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him.” Meaning, God has given every human being a measure of love and the ability and freedom to decide where to place our Love, or where to “set it”. Experience tells us that wherever we place our love, it grows!

If we place our love, solely on ourselves, we become self-absorbed. Our thoughts and words will be about ourselves. Every conversation will be turned around and made about ourselves. We become really annoying to be around and people will only be able to tolerate us for a few minutes at a time or try to avoid us altogether.

      God’s love is unconditional. But our love, not so much. We like to keep our hand on it, just in case we need to remove it quickly. We have a problem loving people we don’t trust, which is understandable. The true problem is, we don’t really know how to love. 1st Corinthians 13 teaches us the attributes of love and how to love. God gave us those guidelines so that we can learn how to use the measure of love He gave us. God sets the example by loving us when we couldn’t be trusted. Placing our love on God opens a floodgate of future potential because we then have the ability and freedom to love generously. Psalms 91 14-16, “Because he has set his love on Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. When he calls to Me, I will answer him; I will be with him in times of trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

      If we love our neighbor, we won’t covet his wife, steal his stuff, slander or kill him. When we place our love on our spouse, we won’t commit adultery. If we place our love on our children, we will not provoke them to anger. The commandments are kept naturally and effortlessly out of love, not out of duty. Jesus said that we will be known by our love for one another. This means love shows. It shows when we have it and it really shows when we don’t.

      One day at a church singles function I met someone and instantly I knew there was something different about her, something I admired. The attraction wasn’t physical so I couldn’t figure out what it was; I just knew she was different. The group was talking about witnessing. She told a story of a confrontational women’s radical conversion. In the story she mentioned that she loved God. God let me know that she genuinely loved Him, put Him first, and it showed in every area of her life.

      However, my life was a mess; I had been trying to walk the Christian walk for more than 10 years without one ounce of victory. I was caught up in all kinds of physical addictions and I couldn’t say no, I couldn’t get free of anything. God let me know that I loved sin, I put it first and it showed in every area of my life. I realized that I loved God like I loved my father. My father was not part of my life, he was on a need to know basis, I only told him the good stuff or a good story that would get me out of a jam. It hit me I didn’t know what love was. I asked God to show me how to love and increase my capacity to love Him and others. As a human being I couldn’t love people I didn’t trust and how could He love me knowing I couldn’t be trusted. That’s when destiny began for me and I understood what Jesus meant when He said; “if you love me you will keep my commandments”, the truth was because I didn’t love him, it was not possible for me to keep His commandments.

      God loving me didn’t change my life, because I love my sin. But when I decided to set my love on God my journey began. It was amazing how easy it was to develop an ever-growing love for God once I got to know Him. I prayed for the desire to walk away from my old lifestyle. When my love for God grew past the level that I loved my sin. The desire to continue my old lifestyle was gone and I was free. What I couldn’t accomplish in 10 years only took a few short months. He cleaned me up enough to give me that Godly women that loved Him for a wife of more than 30 years, Godly friends, taught me how to prosper and let me experience all things working together for good to them that love God. As our love for God increases, old things pass away and all things become new, nothing stays the same. We move from trying to keep the commandments out of duty to actually keeping them out of love. Our Christian walk becomes easy, even in the midst of storms. We rely on Christ. And, we no longer think in terms of what people will think, but what God thinks. Would I be comfortable doing this, dressing like that, or going there, if Jesus were to show up?

      Looking back at where I was and where I am now, I can join the countless millions of Christians on earth. And say my “Eye has not seen, nor has my ear heard, Nor has entered into my Imagination. The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” The good news is God is not a respecter of persons, if He did it for a serious liability like me He will do it for you.

      Make the decision to develop a love for God. Trust Him to take an active role in your life. The more you get to know Him the easier it is to love Him. So that’s What Love has to do with it.