Devotional for Loving God

As Christians, we tend to be doers. We focus on good deeds, helping others, creating ministries, etc.

But sometimes we get too focused on the 'work' that we lose sight of the purpose.

Loving God is supposed to be our first and foremost priority. All of our actions are supposed to flow out of our love for Him!

How do you show your love for God?

Gary Chapman, the author of The Five Love Languages, describes five ways we can show love to others. We can use that model to give examples of loving God and putting Him first before all other people and things.

Quality time - Are you giving God your quality time? Or does He get your leftovers? Is your time with God obligatory and forced, or do you enjoy sharing your day with Him?

Words of Affirmation - When you are praying, are you thanking God for all that He is? Or are you only focusing on what you want Him to do for you? God wants us to desire, pursue, and praise Him.

Acts of Service - Do you do things to glorify God's kingdom? Are your actions out of love and adoration for our Heavenly Father? Or because you feel you have to? 

Gifts - Do you freely give of your money, items, and time from a place of love and joy? Or do you give from a place of obligation and resentment?

Physical Touch - Do you take the time to yield and feel the experience of the Holy Spirit within you? Do you think of His presence throughout your day? Does your physical touch on others flow out of love for our Lord?

Loving God is easy when He is our focus and center. But we can be easily led astray if we don't make Him a priority in our day. 

And we all have seasons where loving God feels dry, forced, or far down the priority list. That doesn’t make you a bad Christian; it makes you tired, distracted, or hurting. The incredible news? God’s love for you isn’t based on how much you love Him today—He loved you first, fully, and forever while you were still His enemy (Romans 5:8). When your heart feels cold, He’s still pursuing you, still singing over you, still delighted to be your Father.

In marriage and family life, loving God first looks like:

• Putting your quiet time with Jesus before scrolling, work, or even your spouse’s needs some mornings
• Praying together as a couple before you pray for anyone else
• Letting your kids see you choose God over everything else (phone, TV, tiredness, mood)
• Loving your spouse and children out of the overflow of being loved by God—not out of duty
• Teaching your family, ‘We love because He first loved us’—by the way you live every ordinary day

Take the time to read the Bible scriptures below and truly focus on what they are saying to you. Some passages may touch you differently than others. Writing down the verses in your own hand is helpful for some individuals. Possibly looking up the verses in your Bible may be beneficial. I use a NIV bible translation. Or reading them over and over to commit to memory. Whatever method works best for you to experience God’s words and feel closer to Him.

Deuteronomy 6:4-7

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Matthew 22:37-39

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

Joshua 22:5

But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the Lord gave you: to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to keep his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

John 14:23-24

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

1 Kings 8:61