TO LOVE GOD

The Bible gives a strict directive to the followers of Christ; emphatic, impassioned, and conclusive. There appears to be no 'wiggle room' when it comes to obeying this command ... 

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. (Mark 12:30)

The problem is that most read this verse through the prism of an earthbound understanding of the word 'love'. Jesus' straightforward edict becomes a glossed-over, ambiguous, vague notion ... mostly taken as a spiritual generality. 

This ought not to be so.

Hiebert - Love to God must possess the whole heart (the seat of personality), the whole soul (the self-conscious life), the whole mind (the rational faculties), and the whole strength (the entire active powers of man).    

You cannot conjure this up yourself. It is the indwelling Holy Spirit who enables you to love God properly ... But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. (Galatians 5:22). 

Spending time in God's presence, listening to His voice, reading His Word, and daily seeking to know Him better is how love is expressed. Like David, you experience a deep longing ... As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. (Psalm 42:1)

A growing knowledge of Who He is and what He has done stirs your soul, and you're taken captive by His essence ... We love Him because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19)

We tend to think of love as a 'feeling'. But when it is applied to God, it takes the form of 'adoration' ... demonstrated by a life of worship, praise, thanksgiving, and reverence. 

'To love God' is nothing more than surrendering all that you are to all that He is.