Loving God

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I believe in the teachings of the Church but cannot understand how to love God because I cannot see him. I love other people but the Gospels say that loving other people comes second to loving God. Please advise me on this important issue.
 
Hi 👋 pray to God for the grace of faith, that you will have a very strong faith and that you will learn to love him. It takes time…

If you enter the Catholic Church, as I’m guessing you’re not yet Catholic, you will find that taking Communion and attending Mass and the Sacraments, that these all really do help in loving God more 😃
 
mikel1249 said:
I believe in the teachings of the Church but cannot understand how to love God because I cannot see him. I love other people but the Gospels say that loving other people comes second to loving God. Please advise me on this important issue.
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Hi,

Ask the Holy Spirit to come into your heart and soul and lead you to Jesus by faith and will, not emotions. “Ask and ye shall receive, knock and the door shall be opened.” This is Jesus’ promise, take him at his Word and he will find you. I cannot see the wind, but I sure can feel its effect. The same with God, I cannot see Him, but I sure know and feel his presence and affects in my life. Be open to Him and He will find you and you will know it.
 
mikel1249 said:
I believe in the teachings of the Church but cannot understand how to love God because I cannot see him. I love other people but the Gospels say that loving other people comes second to loving God. Please advise me on this important issue.
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What a wonderful question 👍 You may be surprised to realize that, by asking this question of yourself. of pondering on this issue, you are actually accomplishing (to an extent) this Love for God.

Our desires in this area always outstrip our abilities. Plus there is the problem of not being capable of loving God to the extent He deserves. In both of these things, the Love we show our neighbor is the way in which we show our Love for God.
Jesus tells us that, “Whatever you do to the least of these…you do to Me”…
So please recognize that, in loving your neighbor you are loving God.

As to what we are able to do to Love God - separate from the active Love of our neighbor, consider how we love a spouse or our child. Such Love might manifest itself in various actions, but the real Love is the offering up of ourselves for the good of the other. This can take many forms, often things that we might consider sacrifices, but also includes an underlying desire to please the other and to do what is best for them - even at your own expense.
Love of God then - involves this giving of one’s self to Him; Of desiring to please Him; Of thanking Him for all things; and desiring to draw close to Him.

Hope this helps.

I might also recommend that you might want to read the book listed in my signature as well as the book “The Story of a Soul” by St Therese of Lisieux. I found these to be very helpful in this regard.

Peace
James
 
You cannot love God unless you know God.
Pray that God will begin to show you who He is.
 
mikel1249 said:
I believe in the teachings of the Church but cannot understand how to love God because I cannot see him. I love other people but the Gospels say that loving other people comes second to loving God. Please advise me on this important issue.
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I don’t believe you can fully love God or other people without loving the other. You love God through loving other people. To me, when Jesus broke down the commandments into two commands, it sounds like two instead of one but I suspect to Jesus they are two ways of stating the same thing such that it was clear nobody was getting left out.

If you love the least of Jesus’s brothers, then so do you love God.

Whatever you do to them, you do to Him. (Mt 25:30)

Other opinions may vary. 😉

Alan
 
Maybe to love God one has to love His attributes first…Love, mercy, truth, justice…
 
mikel1249 said:
I believe in the teachings of the Church but cannot understand how to love God because I cannot see him. I love other people but the Gospels say that loving other people comes second to loving God. Please advise me on this important issue.
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Could you be too reliant on feeling love for God? I think, in this context, love is a more objective endevour, that may or may not, be accompanied by subjective feelings.

You don’t have to like, or have feelings, for your neighbour to show love, as commanded by Jesus. And, He said, loving God is similar.
 
philial said:
Could you be too reliant on feeling love for God? I think, in this context, love is a more objective endevour, that may or may not, be accompanied by subjective feelings.

You don’t have to like, or have feelings, for your neighbour to show love, as commanded by Jesus. And, He said, loving God is similar.
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I think you make a good point. True love does not require warm-and-fuzzy affectations in order to be valid.

That is good for me, I’d say, because if I catch myself “not feeling the love,” that isn’t automatically a sign I’m not right with God.

Alan
 
And not only that, Alan, but we could be trapped into self-seeking if all we seek is affirmation by way of ‘warm and fuzzy’. Whereas, by working in spite of ourselves, we are emptying ourselves, as did Christ, so we can be more like Christ.

it’s one of my main distrusts of the whole pentecostal / happy clappy religions - self satisfying instead of God satisfying. And maybe that’s a good reason for God to withhold ‘warm and fuzzy’ from us, in case we become idolatrous, seeking ourselves instead of Him?
 
philial said:
And not only that, Alan, but we could be trapped into self-seeking if all we seek is affirmation by way of ‘warm and fuzzy’. Whereas, by working in spite of ourselves, we are emptying ourselves, as did Christ, so we can be more like Christ.

it’s one of my main distrusts of the whole pentecostal / happy clappy religions - self satisfying instead of God satisfying. And maybe that’s a good reason for God to withhold ‘warm and fuzzy’ from us, in case we become idolatrous, seeking ourselves instead of Him?
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Amen to this…

But I think that we need to also be aware that there are dangers in the opposite extreme…seeking affirmation in things not “warm and fuzzy” - the path of asceticism has it’s pitfalls as well.

This is why I think it very wise of the OP to ask about how to properly Love God. It is something that we all need to continually consider.

Peace
James
 
JRKH said:
Amen to this…

But I think that we need to also be aware that there are dangers in the opposite extreme…seeking affirmation in things not “warm and fuzzy” - the path of asceticism has it’s pitfalls as well.

This is why I think it very wise of the OP to ask about how to properly Love God. It is something that we all need to continually consider.

Peace
James
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Amen back to you, James.😉
 
mikel1249 said:
I believe in the teachings of the Church but cannot understand how to love God because I cannot see him. I love other people but the Gospels say that loving other people comes second to loving God. Please advise me on this important issue.
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Mikel1249 - have you ever built anything? Maybe it was something visible, like a table. Or, maybe something not so visible, like teamwork amongst a team. If someone were to observe the thing you built, would it not have some bearing on your inner workings?

To see God, you can look around. The physical world, I believe, tells you some things about God. He built it. He made decisions about how to build it - and those decisions reflect the Creator/Builder.

In that vein, have you noticed:
  1. That what we think - our thoughts - our spirit - our soul - is not outwardly observable?
  2. That marriage may be a “type” of this kind of “coming to know” the God who loves us?
  3. Marriage takes work - it’s a relationship, and you have to work at it.
Here’s the thing - when you decide to enter into marriage with another person - you know them pretty well (most folks in the West do, anyway). But still, all of the internal thoughts of the new spouse are not available - only the external manifestation of those thoughts and feelings. You can take a good guess about what those thoughts and feelings really are, but you don’t know for certain.

As you live your marriage - you will come to know your spouse to a greater and deeper degree. More and more, the internal workings of your spouse will become understood - not because you can visibly see those inner workings - but because you have so many external references, it becomes easier to piece the puzzle together.

I think God works in a very similar way. He built all of this a certain way - and it reflects something about Him - in the same way that what you build reflects the internal workings of you.

When you pray - some of your prayers will be answered. Some will appear to be ignored. Those “external manifestations” will help you to get to know God. The more you put into the relationship - the more you will piece this together. Coming to know God will take work on your part. Trust me, even though neither you nor me deserve any attention, God will work to build our relationship with Him.

Just a thought…
 
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