Loving God is a Heart Thing
Other Posts in this Series
- Loving God is a Heart Thing
- Loving God is a Soul Thing
- Loving God is a Mind Thing
- Loving God is a Strength Thing
A student of worship experiences would be quick to point out the huge range of emotional content one might find in worship services across the world. I have been in worship services where individuals clapped and swayed in unison with their hands stretched over their heads toward heaven. With closed eyes and uplifted faces, they shouted their praise with enthusiastic fervor. Honestly, I feel uncomfortable in these settings because my emotion doesn’t flow so freely and outwardly.
I have worshiped in other places where the gathered church all knelt in silence, heads bowed and hands folded in front of them. Quiet organ music filled the silence in the massive cathedral space. Worshipers spoke rote unison liturgies, and tears flowed from my eyes. At other times these worship experiences leave me dry and bored.
Any time we talk about love we immediately think of emotions and feelings. When an engaged couple talks about their love for each other, they are often talking about a good feeling that comes over them in the presence of the other. Loving God should have the same kind of emotional attachment. Thus, getting emotional in God’s presence should be a common event.
What I fear about many Christians, however, including myself, is that the emotion we feel is too often contrived. We mistake the emotion connected with the worship music or the movement of the crowd as our love for God. There are times I find myself getting choked up during a hymn. I can’t continue for fear of weeping. Typically, it is an old hymn from my childhood. They hymn brings back emotions from my boyhood; it connects me with a nostalgic feeling of joy or sadness. These are not wrong emotions, and I think they are perfectly legitimate in a worship experience, but are they demonstrations of our love for God? I think not.
In reality, when Jesus instructed us to love God with all our heart (Mark 12:30) he probably had in mind the Hebrew idiom of heart as the center of human thinking. He may not have had emotional responses in mind at all. However, cognitive psychologists today are very aware of the clear connection between our thoughts and our feelings. They are so close they cannot easily be separated. Our thoughts determine our feelings. Loving God, then, means loving with our thoughts that ultimately are expressed in our emotions. The reverse is not necessarily true. Just because we get emotionally wound up in a worship service does not mean we are reflecting on God’s wonder. Emotion for emotion sake was not what Jesus had in mind when he said “Love the Lord your God with all your heart.”
If thoughts are one of the keys to love, what are my thoughts about God?
- God is the author of all creation.
- God pursues me with open arms.
- God forgives me all my mistakes.
- God is actively involved in my life.
- God is beyond my understanding.
When I take the time to reflect deeply on these thoughts, I’m loving God. Meditatation on God’s greatness is an act of worship. Thanksgiving for God’s grace and forgiveness is a demonstration of my own love. Personally, I do this best in quiet moments either with other Christians or alone with God. Sometimes a hymn or praise song will remind me of these truths and my feelings of love for God overwhelm me. When I’m clearly thinking about God’s attributes I often cannot help weep with joy or sing with thanksgiving.
If I am to do the most important things in life then I must start by thinking about God, reflecting on God’s majesty, acknowledging God’s wonder, accepting God’s grace. These are often emotional thoughts, but they need not be. Loving God does not require tears or dancing (though these may well be natural outcomes). Loving God does require putting God at the forefront of our thoughts and making God the center of our lives.
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