CHOOSE TO LOVE GOD! ~ CookingFood.Org

“GENEROUS LENT 2017”

Lenten Reflections

Friday, 24^th March 2017,

Third Week of Lent

Hos 14:2-10;

Ps 81:6-11,14,17;

Mk 12:28-34

CHOOSE TO LOVE GOD!

The scribe asked Jesus, “Which is the greatest commandment?” and Jesus answered “Love”. The love that we know and experience in life is a feeling that arises within us; A feeling, an emotion we relate with things we have received or desire. In a way things and people control our love.

However, what Jesus refers to “Love” is quite different. This is a love we control, we choose to give. God does not need our love to survive? Yet he chooses to give us life. This is not because he needs us, but because he wants to give it. This is the meaning of God’s “unconditional love”. What God commands us to do is to choose to love him just as he chooses to love us. And when we do so, we receive his blessings all the more, for we remain in the radiance of his love. Let us therefore, choose to love God with our whole being; then we will not be far from the Kingdom of God!

The first step in loving God is coming to know Him. This means we must seek to understand, comprehend and believe in God and all that has been revealed to us about Him. It means we have sought to penetrate the very mystery of God’s life, especially through Scripture and through the countless revelations given through the history of the Church. Second, when we come to a deeper understanding of God and all that He has revealed, we make a free choice to believe in Him and follow His ways. This free choice must follow our knowledge of Him and becomes an act of faith in Him. Third, when we have begun to penetrate the mystery of the life of God and chosen to believe in Him and all that He has revealed, we will see our lives change. One specific aspect of our lives that will change is that we will desire God and His will in our lives, we will want to seek Him more, we will find joy in following Him and we will discover that all the powers of our human soul will slowly become consumed with a love of Him and His ways. Reflect upon how diligently you seek to know and understand Jesus and all that He has revealed.

Prayer: Lord, Help me to be diligent in my commitment to know You and to seek to discover all the glorious truths of Your life. I thank You for all that You have revealed to me and I dedicate myself, this day, to a more thorough discovery of Your life and revelation. Jesus, I trust in You. Amen.