Why love God?
In it's simplest form no one could be more justly loved than God, no one deserves our love more.
Bernard goes to describe a plan that follows scripture but gives you a blueprint to add depth to our love.
I want to play with this scripture Luke 10: 27 He answered: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all you strength your mind and, love you neighbour as yourself."
Level One: Love of Self for Self's sake.
Our interest in self is planted deep within us by our creator. The world tries to warp this into many distorted facets that bring ugliness to this earth, power greed, hatred to name a few. But what if we read the scripture above from the back to the front? What if we loved ourselves with all our hearts, soul, strength and mind as God intended. So that we were eventually at one with ourselves. From here on in if each of us choose to focus on our healing and well-being knowing eventually it would bring us closer to the God in whose image we are made. We would be indeed the Temple of the Holy Spirit.
Then if we weren't competing with, and being frightened of, our neighbour. We may be able to love them, as ourselves, as our Heavenly Father would want. Not by judging by the world's standards by the standards of a loving God.
Level Two: Love of God for Self''s sake.
God blesses us with his love and protection. we love God because we begin to realise we can do nothing eternal without him. We learn we can do all things through him and without him nothing. These are all parts of loving God with all our hearts, soul, strength and mind.
Level Three: Love God for God's sake
If trials and tribulations continue to come upon us, every time God brings us through, even if our hearts were made of stone, we will begin to be softened because of the grace of the rescuer. Thus, we begin to love not merely for ourselves, but for himself.
In order to arrive at this we must continually go to God with our needs and pray. in those prayers the grace of God is tasted. and by frequent tasting it has proved to us how sweet the Lord is. drawing us into a pure love for God himself. This also makes loving ourselves easier and certainly loving our neighbour in his name real.
This leads us into the Fourth Level: Loving Self for God's sake. Bernard suggests this is a fleeting experience this side of heaven but still an aspiration.
I have found this profound experience this week as I contemplated the scripture that God gave me and a new way to look at. Supported by the teaching of a man who lived a millennium ago! Quite a paradigm shift. Until next week.
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