Do you ever tell God you love Him?
When someone loves you, it’s only natural for them to tell you. And when you love someone, it’s important for you to say, I love you. Since the First Great Commandment is to love God, then it makes sense that we should tell God that we love Him.
Both the Old Testament and the New stress the importance of loving God.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5
Jesus repeats this commandment when asked what the greatest commandment is.
Jesus says,
love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Mark 12:30
Do you ever tell God you love Him?
Now, I’m sure you’re very familiar with these words. We hear them all the time. And I would imagine you’ve given this commandment a lot of thought and prayer over the years, striving to put God first in your life and loving him above all else.
But I want to come back to this question: How often do you actually tell God you love Him?
Several years ago, I was praying to be obedient to this command to love God, and that question popped into my mind. When was the last time I actually told God I loved Him? I couldn’t even remember.
I don’t know if I had ever said those words to God: I love you. Well, that’s pretty sad. What kind of relationship do I think I have with God? Do I just turn to Him in times of need and expect everything to be taken care of?
Well, not really. I do turn to God for help. But often my prayers are about praising God, getting to know Him better, and striving to be more obedient and spiritually minded. And of course, my actions show God, hopefully, that I love Him.
Do we even need to tell God we love Him?
But why do I need to say those words, I love You? Or do I? Well, the Bible is full of times when God tells people He loves them.
But David sets the example for us, saying to God, I love You. He says,
I love you, Lord, my strength. Psalm 18:1
The rest of Psalm 18 is David thanking and praising God for protection and deliverance, and acknowledging His power and glory. But it all begins with David telling God, I love You, Lord.
What would happen if you started your prayers telling God you love Him, at least every once in a while? It’s not like you need to tell Him because He’s not already aware of what’s in your heart.
It’s more of a reminder, a confirmation and an affirmation to you of your love for God. God knows what’s in your heart before you utter any words in prayer, either silently or audibly.
Ways to tell God you love Him
So let’s think about some ways to express your love for God and what that looks like.
Before you can tell God you love Him, you actually need to love Him. You need to feel that deep, powerful love in your heart for who He is and what He has done in your life. And come to think of it, the first step in this process, if you want to call it that, is the fact that God loves you. His love comes first.
This is pointed out in
We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:19
The only reason you’re able to love God, or anyone, is because God loved you first. This is really the foundation of love.
God is Love. God loves us, and we reflect that love back at Him and toward others. You don’t have to create or originate this love. You just need to return the love that’s already coming to you.
So once you experience God’s love for you and feel your love for God, this love will be expressed naturally in your life in so many different ways.
You can’t just tell God you love Him, you have to live it
So I’ve already talked about the need to tell God you love Him. But you also need to live this love for God in your daily life. How? Well, by obeying God’s commandments and calling on your life, by listening for His voice, doing what He tells you, and going where He guides you.
Your desire and effort to obey God is actually one way that you tell God you love Him.
I mean, why would we try to obey God if we didn’t love Him? Well, I guess you could obey God out of fear of punishment, but that’s not your motive, and God must know that.
But still, I have to ask myself, why don’t I tell God I love Him more often? Honestly, it had never occurred to me until that prayer a few years ago that I needed to do that.
Think about it. If I only told my wife once, 20 years ago that I loved her, how do you think that would affect our relationship. Oh, I could show my love by all kinds of things I did for her. But if I don’t say those beautiful words, “I love you,” then there’s something missing. I think we should tell people often that we love them. Well, only if we really mean it, of course.
You have to mean it
The word love can be cheapened by insincere and exaggerated use. But if you truly love someone, you should tell them often. Maybe sometimes we’re afraid to say those words because it means we’re making a commitment.
If you truly love someone, you’ll treat them differently. If you say “I love you,” you know in your heart that you must show your love by your actions. And that’s what Jesus expected from his disciples when he told them:
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. John 14:15
Your commitment to love God
Maybe sometimes we’re hesitant to tell God we love Him because we don’t think we’re able to make the full commitment those words imply. We might not be able to show our love for Him all the time.
We’re all too aware of how easy it is to stray from 100% love for God every single moment of every single day. Maybe we don’t even feel our love for God at times. Or maybe we don’t think we’re able or worthy to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
Those are just foxy little doubts and fears in the back of our mind.
Moses and Jesus didn’t give us the First Great Commandment to obey only if we have lived a perfect human life. It’s a guideline and a standard to help us get through life, especially the rough spots.
Tell God you love Him by studying the Bible
Another way to tell God you love Him, to express your love for Him, is to stay close to His guidance in the Scriptures. This is closely related to obeying the commandments.
But there’s a lot of inspiration and guidance in the Bible that’s not really in the commandment form. When you let the deep spirituality of the Bible fill your heart and your life with love for God and all God’s children, this love will overflow in your life.
Show your love for God’s children
Another great way to tell God you love him is to express love to others. How much you love God’s people is a pretty good indication of how much you love God.
And one of the best ways to tell God you love Him is to nurture a deep desire within yourself to know and love God more and more all the time.
So take a minute right now and think of all that God has done for you. Well, that should take a lot longer than a minute. Feel the gratitude way down deep in your heart.
Tell God you love Him
Now tell God you love Him. If someone you know did all those wonderful things for you, or even much less, you would be so grateful and you’d probably tell that person how much you love them. Shouldn’t we do the same with God?
But do you love someone just because they did something nice for you? Do we love God because of the things He does for us? Well, of course. But if that’s the only reason our love is based on benefits received instead of who God is as our Creator.
We don’t love God in a tit for tat relationship that says, “If You love me, I’ll love You.” It’s more like God is the sun radiating out light and we reflect that light back to Him.
So in that prayer several years ago I mentioned at the beginning of this episode, I started telling God I loved Him. I thought of lots of qualities and attributes of God which I truly do love, like His loving kindness, grace and mercy, His divine wisdom, beauty and holiness, His guiding, guarding and protecting power.
The list went on and on. I talked directly to God and said, “I love You God.” And I told Him I loved all these qualities, or facets, of who He is.
Tell God you love Him
Now I have to tell you, it felt a little weird at first. Actually, it was not in my regular boundaries for prayer, but as I kept going, it felt good and true.
And it’s a much more natural part of my prayers now to tell God I love Him. Not for any other reason than that He is my God. So I invite you to join me in this little exercise, this prayer project, if you want to call it that.
Tell God you love Him and not just in your prayer time. Tell Him at stray moments during the day when you’re setting the table, or going from one meeting to another at work, or when you’re stuck in traffic, or when there’s no traffic on the highway.
We have a two way covenant relationship with God. It’s not enough just to say “Thank You” to Him. As important as that is, we also need to tell God we love Him and then live our lives as proof of that love.
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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and church mentor. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by learning to think, pray, and love like Jesus. Contact him here.
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Bible References
Deuteronomy 6:5
5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
Mark 12:30
30 love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
Psalm 18:1
1 I love you, Lord, my strength.
1 John 4:19
19 We love because he first loved us.
John 14:15
15 If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
