Loving God.

[jeffrey]

The Bible says to love God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. How? I mean, I love God (and Jesus), but not with all my heart soul and mind. I love my wife more. I love my kids more. And I feel guilty for this. How can you love God so much when you never see him? I see his works, and love what he has done for me. But I don't feel I love him like I Am supposed to. Can anyone truthfully say that they love God more then their own kids our the person they live with? (Married or not)

 

[Sunstone]

Isn't at least part of loving God, loving his creation? As long as you love the world around you, very much including your wife and children, I would think you were in line with the Biblical injunction to love God. For how else do you know God other than through his works?

 

[Quiddity]

The Bible says to love God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. How? I mean, I love God (and Jesus), but not with all my heart soul and mind. I love my wife more. I love my kids more. And I feel guilty for this. How can you love God so much when you never see him? I see his works, and love what he has done for me. But I don't feel I love him like I Am supposed to. Can anyone truthfully say that they love God more then their own kids our the person they live with? (Married or not)

That is a darn good question. And one in which I plan to find out through my growth. I'm in the same boat. I think very few do.

~Victor

 

[Quiddity]

Isn't at least part of loving God, loving his creation? As long as you love the world around you, very much including your wife and children, I would think you were in line with the Biblical injunction to love God. For how else do you know God other than through his works?

That's a good point Sunstone. But I think jgallandt may be talking about the actual fuzzy feelings one gets with your own family and applying to God with more intensity.

~Victor

 

[jeffrey]

That's a good point Sunstone. But I think jgallandt may be talking about the actual fuzzy feelings one gets with your own family and applying to God with more intensity.

~Victor

Yes, correct. My wife and I where talking about this. She also feels guilty and not a true Christian. I'm curious if anyone has that fuzzy feeling. I love my wife with all my heart, soul and mind, but not God.

 

[Quiddity]

Yes, correct. My wife and I where talking about this. She also feels guilty and not a true Christian. I'm curious if anyone has that fuzzy feeling. I love my wife with all my heart, soul and mind, but not God.

I do want to note that I have gotten intense feelings directed at God but it's not something I experience everyday.

~Victor

 

[Sunstone]

I'm confused. Why is loving God any different in spirit than loving his creation? God is beyond human comprehension, but his creation is something we can taste, touch, smell, hear, see, and love.

 

[Quiddity]

I'm confused. Why is loving God any different in spirit than loving his creation?

For the same reason that you may love your mom more then your friend.

~Victor

 

[michel]

The Bible says to love God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. How? I mean, I love God (and Jesus), but not with all my heart soul and mind. I love my wife more. I love my kids more. And I feel guilty for this. How can you love God so much when you never see him? I see his works, and love what he has done for me. But I don't feel I love him like I Am supposed to. Can anyone truthfully say that they love God more then their own kids our the person they live with? (Married or not)

Been there, done that, Got the tee shirt. I even have the feelings of 'Guilt'; I think the worst one being that if God did test me one day, and told me to kill my son, I wouldn't be able to do it.

Isn't at least part of loving God, loving his creation? As long as you love the world around you, very much including your wife and children, I would think you were in line with the Biblical injunction to love God. For how else do you know God other than through his works?

You make a good point Sunstone. For me, everything I see, smell, hear and touch is part of God, and yes, I can enjoy them, and thank God for them........but it still doesn't seem good enough.:help:

 

[jeffrey]

Victor, me too, but that feeling only lasts a moment.

Sunstone, I appreciate what your saying, but ah michel says, I don't feel it's enough. It's loving God, but Not with all your heart, soul and mind. I love God, but not with all my heart, soul and mind. When I hold my wife close, that feeling you get. Or when your child comes up to you and hugs you. THAT feeling. THAT is with all your heart, soul and mind.​

And michel, I'll send you a PM!

 

[Sunstone]

Somehow, I just can't believe that anyone who loves their wife and children with all their heart, soul, and mind would ever be considered inadequate in God's eyes just because they didn't love an incomprehensible being with the same intensity. But that may just be me. If it's a problem for you, then it's a problem, isn't it?

 

[Quiddity]

would ever be considered inadequate in God's eyes

I'm certainly not saying that. He may very well take whatever we got. We are only pointing out our lack there of.

~Victor

 

[jeffrey]

I'm certainly not saying that. He may very well take whatever we got. We are only pointing out our lack there of.

~Victor

You took the words out of my mouth! We love God, and appreciate him, but that's not loving him with all you heart, soul and mind as the Bible states we must do.

 

[Sunstone]

I'm certainly not saying that. He may very well take whatever we got. We are only pointing out our lack there of.

~Victor

OK. I think I understand your position now.

 

[Cordoba]

Interesting topic.

Faith in the heart can increase with time, and it can also decrease.

The more Faith in God increases, the more the love of God occupies a larger percentage of one's heart.

Even the love of wife and children will become one aspect of the love a believer has for God.

There is no contradiction. It's only when a believer reaches the highest level of loving God, that this love is much stronger than any other love.

 

[MdmSzdWhtGuy]

Been there, done that, Got the tee shirt. I even have the feelings of 'Guilt'; I think the worst one being that if God did test me one day, and told me to kill my son, I wouldn't be able to do it.

Your son and the western justice system likely are both appreciative that you feel this way Michel. Frankly I don't understand how anyone could even consider following a god/person/beleif/political system that would require them, or any member to kill his or her own child. The very thought of a set of circumstances where it would be acceptable for me to kill one of my kids is beyond comprehension.

The knife goes to the person's throat giving that order long and often before it ever gets to the throat of my child. What kind of sick depraved person could do that to another? (Saddam Hussein, Edi Amein, Hitler), and who would ever choose to follow such a person, or diety, as the case may be?

Michel, you are a good person for feeling this way. It scares me to think we share the world with people who would kill their children if they thought God wanted them to do so. Problem is, there are such people. That is a scary reality.

B.

 

[Quiddity]

The very thought of a set of circumstances where it would be acceptable for me to kill one of my kids is beyond comprehension.

Mine too.

~Victor

 

[Aqualung]

Yes, correct. My wife and I where talking about this. She also feels guilty and not a true Christian. I'm curious if anyone has that fuzzy feeling. I love my wife with all my heart, soul and mind, but not God.

I think the first step is trying to follow his commandments. You probably do what your wife tells you to do (cook dinner, change the kid's diaper, whatever), and if you applied that same fervour to following God's commandments, you will probably find your love for him grow.

 

[Ormiston]

I've got a different take on this. Maybe your love for God is more like your love for your best friend after 30 years. It's not a passionate feeling like you have for your wife and kids because the feelings you have for them are much more complicated. You have romantic feelings for your wife and maybe even some resentments which figure in to the fuzzy feelings. You constantly fear for your children and would die for them. But an old friend is different. Your love is based more around the timeless comradery and the comfort of questionless loyalty. You love all of them with all of your heart, each simply makes you feel different on the inside.

 

[MdmSzdWhtGuy]

Mine too.

~Victor

Then how to you deal with the story in the Bible where God tells one of his top followers to kill his son?

And I am asking this in all seriousness, not trying to pick a fight. I value and respect your opinion, and want to know how you, personally, can equate a God who makes this order with a loving diety.

B.