Time in the Lord's presence is time to love Him!
In my own life, my time with the Lord every day, throughout the day, has become time to literally feel and experience the Lord's love on my body and in my body.
Yes, I know it sounds strange to us who would rather experience these things very rationally and here in our heads!
It has also become my time to simply tell the Lord how much I love Him.
I understand so well why the Bible in so many passages describes our relationship with the Lord in terms of a marriage and as an intimate love relationship.
Now think, for example, of one of my beloved Psalms, namely Psalm 18.
“I love you very much, Lord, my strength. You are my rock, my refuge and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and strong deliverer, my safe fortress.”
And then I hear the psalmist singing there in verse 7 and onwards:
“In my distress I call to you, O Lord, yes, I cry for help to you, my God.
From his palace, he hears my cry. I call to him for help, and he listens to me.”
Then there is the well-known Psalm 23.
Listen to see if you also hear this in the words of this psalm. I am quoting from the MESSAGE translation.
“The Lord takes care of me like a shepherd who looks after his sheep; I need nothing more.
He gives me the very best of everything: food, security, and peace.
Because the Lord is with me, I do not worry.
When I become discouraged, He makes me see life differently again.
3He gives me the strength to live every day right.
Like a good guide, He leads me every day to live according to His will.
Everyone in my life can see how important God is.
Even when life becomes so dark for me that I do not know which way to turn, I will not be afraid that problems will overtake me, because You are always with me.
It comforts me that You guide and protect me. You make me feel safe.
Like a host, You only set before me the best of life; those who do not live near You can only look on in embarrassment.
You treat me like a special guest; I enjoy everything in abundance.
You will be good to me and love me as long as I live; I will live near You until the day I die.”
See? I told you that our time and conversations with the Lord also become our time to feel the Lord’s love in our bodies and not just experience it as something rational!
Therefore, it should not surprise you that the most important of all the commandments and what God requires of His people is described as love.
Thus, we read in Matthew 22:36 to 40 the following:
“Master,” he asked, “which is the greatest commandment in the law?”
Jesus answered him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul’ and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Our love for the Lord and our love for our neighbor will drive us to Him, rather than it being just another job or discipline in our lives. After all, being focused and aware of the Lord and His presence in our lives is the heart of our daily relationship with Him, rather than anything else. We do it and want to do it because we love Him.
So many times, as followers of Jesus, we try to learn something or to build a discipline into our lives that can improve our relationship with the Lord. Only to then eventually discover again how that discipline has just become this “job” in our lives and is no longer something that happens as normally as breathing in our lives.
God’s heart for us is that we will learn that spiritual breathing simply means what Jesus tells us here in Matt. 22: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” (Matt. 22:37)