Daily Digest #248

Love the Lord your God, . . . obey His voice, and . . . cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days. —Deuteronomy 30:20

The Scripture says that "to love God is to obey His commandments".... Just recently, I was reminded how loving God starts with a commitment -- a decision to love. And along with this love comes the goal to glorify and please Him, through the act of worship. We may have different notions on the word "worship", often limiting it to singing songs at the top of our voice, waving our hands high, with tears coming down our face while shouting "halleluiah!" or "praise God!" or "amen!!!" :D We often debate about religious practices that we ignore or forget what they really stand for. But God's words clarify this by reiterating how he looks at the condition of our hearts rather than our actions. And when our hearts are made clean and pure, our obedience reflects in the way we live.

A friend told me that we have different ways of expressing our love for God, and oftentimes we show or give love the way we wish to accept it in our lives. When we have this strong thirst to love and be loved, I think that's the time when God is actually knocking on our hearts. The choice is ours: will we let Him in?

For this, let us pray. May we ask for courage and strength to learn to accept our need for love, to know the nature of God's unconditional love for us, and to believe and receive His love and mercy in our lives. May we trust that it is after these initial steps that our faith eventually grows, and we learn to obey God in the most natural way. May we make the decision today -- to love. Pray always.