Loving God Less

I love God more and more everyday. But today I am struck with the awareness that I will always love him less than he loves me. How humbling.

We can never equalize both sides of the equation. He will always love us more than we love him.

When I tell God I love him more than my house, more than my car, or more than my retirement account, I can be guilty of spiritual pride in the same breath. But when I understand he will always love me more than I love him, it shakes me to the core. I am humbled and brought to my knees. I am ashamed of my arrogance for thinking my sacrifice is so significant. How ignorant I have been.

Even if I give up all that I have, it will never compare to the love he has for me. From my perspective, loving God more than my retirement account is a really big deal. But from God’s perspective, does my retirement account matter? I think not. In the scale of the universe, is giving up my bank account really significant? Is God impressed if I love him more than my car? Seriously?

God may lead me to give up many things as I follow Christ. But if I am not careful, I can compare myself to those around me instead of comparing myself to God. Any sacrifice I make would still pale in comparison to the sacrifice God made for me in sending the son that he loves to die on my behalf. Let’s compare the two: sending your only son to die in place of someone who doesn’t deserve it, versus giving away your car. Well, there you have it.

John wrote about this idea. Consider what he said:

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4:10-11, ESV).

This is what love is all about. It is not that we love God, but that he loves us. Out of his overwhelming love for us, he sent his Son to pay the penalty for our sins. Therefore, if God loves us in this way, shouldn’t we love others the same way ourselves? The point is not our love for God, but his love for us. The focus is always on his love for us. We love him as a response to his love. We love others as a response to his love. And the depth of our love will always be proportionate to our understanding of his love for us.

In the future, I think I will be hesitant to remind God just how much I love him because in the end, I always love him less.