God is the ultimate lover in the sense that He first loved us even before we began to breathe or before we knew Him- I John 4:19. Moreover, the bible tells us that God is love and whoever does not love does not know God. Therefore a prerequisite of knowing what it means to love, how to love, everything about love is to genuinely knowing God, like an experiential knowledge of God.
And to know God is as easy as knowing the friends that we have here on earth. How do we know them? How do understand the things they like or dislike? How do we know their love language? We are able to answer these questions by spending as much time as we can with them, by having conversations with them, by listening to them and speaking with them just to mention a few.
The same goes with knowing God and His Love language. I’d like to quickly add that God loves us regardless of whatever we do but He would love for us to grow in love of Him. He would love for us to love and express our love for Him as much as He does for us.
It really isn’t beneficial for any of God’s children to be stagnant in the knowledge of God or experiencing Him.
This blog post is non exhaustive of ways to know God and show Him how much we love Him, the bible has a lot more details on know-hows and how-tos. Please refer to the bible ultimately:
God’s Love Language, Shall we?
- Spend Quality Time with God : Show me a thriving relationship that doesn’t entail for the parties involved spending good time in each other’s company, and show me a failed relationship. Great relationships start and thrive on the amount of time invested in getting to know the friend. The same goes with loving God and showing Him. I do not think it is enough to just say, Ï love God” and not show it. For a start, we can schedule times in the day when we study God’s love letter to us (The Holy Bible), we can also ask Him questions as we study and. give it a shot for a month and I bet you won’t be the same. It is both a spiritual exercise and a way to express our love for God, hence it changes us inside out.
- Make Sacrifices for Him: There sure is an element of sacrifices here and there in every successful relationship here on earth. I believe it all stemmed from the great sacrifice God made for us to express His love for us. He sent His only son to the world, watched Him go through so much pain and hardship and humiliation so that we can experience salvation. I do not know of any greater sacrifice yet, hence to express our love for God we should be able to make some sacrifices for Him as we grow in our walk with Him. For example, Abraham was willing to sacrifice his only son to please God, Paul Apostle Paul decided to sacrifice all of His time to the service of God and the list goes on. Our great helper, the Holy Spirit is always available to guide us on the Godly, acceptable sacrificial giving we should engage in, let us do well to ask Him to always guide us. Moreover, in my three years walk with the King of Kings, there is no kind of sacrificial giving that goes unblessed by God. God blesses tremendously His children that give their time, talent, money, etc. But let us be careful not to make His blessings our motivation, let our love for Him motivate us.
- Be Faithful with your Tithes : This is probably in sync with sacrificial giving but it is such a controversial topic these days. Any ways, I personally believe it is a love language with God that just cannot go wrong. It is a way of honoring God with the things He has blessed us with, it is a way of expressing gratitude to the Almighty for the measurable things He gives us such as money. The bible speaks of men like Abraham, Jacob, of God that gave one-tenth of their harvest an d they were greatly blessed by God. Again, let this not be the motivation but let our love for God be the driver of our actions and show of affection to God.
- Live a life of Worship: Wake up in the morning giving thanks to God for watching over you through the night, ’cause a lot of spiritual battles go on at the hour of the night that we may or may not be aware of. Thank Him as you make your way through your day’s activities, thank Him as you bring your day to a close, thank Him as you go to bed, thank Him when you get the things you want, thank Him when you do not too. Thank Him for being God, for being with you all through your life’s journey. King David is an exemplary leader who lived a life of worship and God called Him a man after His heart. You can read the books of Psalm to have a glimpse of a man who really loved God and expressed His love for God.
- Lead a life of Obedience: Nothing pleases a parent like an obedient child, likewise our father in heaven. Obeying His instructions can be symbolic of our respect for Him, our recognition of His sovereignty and also an expression of our love for Him. Every successful man or woman in the bible that had solid relationships with God, respected Him and obeyed Him to the tail.
- Love your neighbour: I admit that this is something that takes the help of God to do but then God has told us in His word that this is a sign that you actually love Him. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen- I John 4:20. This takes a process, a process of loving God, knowing God and allowing Him to work in us, shed His love abroad in our hearts and then we can share with our brothers and sisters the love of God.
I indulge you my brother and sister in Christ cease from lip-saying, ”I love God”. Let our motives, actions, lifestyle show our love for God. And may He keep helping us in Jesus name