Just a thought...

I grew up in the traditional setting of church. My dad is a pastor so I was in church a lot growing up. I was taught what the Bible says about everything. I grew up knowing God. So, why are there times in life that I still question if I love God the way I should or want to?Why as a person who claims to be a believer of over 25 years do I struggle with loving God?

Simple. I grew up knowing about God but not knowing what it meant to love Him. To know Him is to first love Him. The opposite is true in our culture. To truly love someone we must first really know them. I cannot truly know God without loving Him first. I grew up backwards (insert your own Mississippi joke here). I grew up trying to know God without understanding the need to love Him first. Too many of us do this. We try to intellectually dissect God before we think we can love Him.

To truly know Him I must set my priority to love Him. Only He can show me who He is. Only God can teach me to know Him. In all my other relationships, I can get to know someone without loving them. If I spend enough time around them, I will began to know them. Then, I can base my love on what I know. Not true with God. I cannot really know God without first loving Him. FAITH.

To some degree that relieves the pressure. I do not claim to be very intelligent. Knowing that all I have to do is love Him rather than figure Him out allows me to do simply love Him. Loving Him will lead to me knowing Him. Loving Him will drive my passion to pray, to read, to study, to discuss, to know Him.

Does this mean that someone should not question who God is before they believe? Does this mean that someone seeking to know God must mindlessly wonder into this relationship? NO.

This simply, for me, explains the faith step from non-belief to belief. Collect all the data you want about God but the decision to begin a relationship with Christ is simply one of faith, of love - not knowledge alone.