If you were to ask someone if they loved God, they’d almost automatically reply, “Of course. I love the Lord with all my heart.” Every day, Christians all around the world say, “Lord, I love you. Oh, Jesus, I love you.” However, loving God is not just something we say religiously to make people think we love Him.

In order to love God, you must first renew your mind where love is concerned. When many people think of love, they think of human, emotional love, which is basically selfish because it has conditions—it loves when the conditions are right, or when it feels like loving. This is the type of love many people demonstrate toward God. However, God is not interested in you loving Him with your feelings.

Contrary to what most people think, love is not a feeling. Our feelings are unstable, and subject to change. For example, if someone dies that we didn't think should have died, our feelings toward God might change. But love is a choice—a decision demonstrated by action. Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). When we obey God’s commandments, trust His power, and worship Him, we demonstrate our love for Him. Otherwise, it is impossible to say we love God.

When we choose what we want or desire over God’s Word, we demonstrate that we love ourselves more than God. We must get rid of our own selfish desires and replace them with the desires God has placed in our hearts. When we love God, we will submit to His plan and purpose for our lives.

According to Romans 5:5, the Holy Spirit has poured the love of God in our hearts, and that love gives us the ability to love with the God-kind of love, or agapé love. Agapé love is unconditional, unselfish love. Unlike selfish, human love, agapé love puts the needs of others above its own. This is the love God wants us to demonstrate.

Every day, you have to make a decision to die to self and develop in the agape love of God. Second Corinthians 4:11 in The Amplified Bible says, “For we who live are constantly [experiencing] being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake, that the [resurrection] life of Jesus also may be evidenced through our flesh which is liable to death.” That means in order for the love of God to be evident in your life, you have to make a quality decision to allow your thoughts, desires, emotions, and feelings, that oppose the Word of God, to die daily. It is impossible to love God, or others, when you have plans, purposes, and desires that are contrary to the Word of God.

God’s Word is His will. Therefore, we must begin to choose the will of God above everything. We must desire His will, even above our own happiness. Loving God simply means obeying His will, not our own.

— Creflo A. Dollar