How Often do you Tell God, "I Love You"?
In my earlier years of marriage, my wife used to always tell me how much she loved me. And when she was done, she would EXPECT that I would tell her that I loved her also. Most of the time I was “on point” and would declare my love right away. Other times I would forget (I know, I know...shame on me). As time went on, I started to ask myself, “why do I have to always tell her I love her? Don’t I show it to her? Isn’t that enough? Can’t I just fulfill my quota of once a week and end the mushy stuff?”
All of that thinking changed one day, when a prophet of God came up to me and gave me a word from the Lord concerning my life. After she prophesied to me, she told me that the Lord loves me soooo much. Now, I, having been raised in the church all of my life, have always known that the Lord loves me. But to actually HEAR it come from the prophet’s mouth…as if it were God Himself speaking to me in the flesh was different. I was on top of the world. You would have thought I was a little kid getting a kiss or hug from my mother and father. I had always known that God loves me, but to physically hear it really blessed my soul. Then I realized just how important it is to tell my wife (and show her) how much I love her very often. I still don’t do it as often as I should but I’m getting better.
This caused me to think, and ask myself, “how much am I declaring my love for God in my prayers?” Am I just telling him I love him on occasion? Do I only shower him with my admiration and affections in church on Sunday? Could I be doing more in my prayers to tell Him how much I love Him? It caused me to reassess the things I say to the Lord on a daily basis.
It is important to tell the Lord you love him…consistently. It’s important to show it also because love is what love does. But for the this specific article, I would like to focus on encouraging you to spend more time telling God that you love Him, speaking of his goodness and kindness.
Even when Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, one of the things he said in the prayer is:
"This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name’” - Matthew 6:9
Jesus starts the prayer by giving God praise. He tells the Father, “Hallowed be thy name.” Or in other words, Holy is Your name, Your name is set apart. Your name is great and greatly revered. That’s what Hallowed means.
So if Jesus, thought it necessary for us to give God, the Father, praise, then shouldn’t we also? Absolutely? Every opportunity we get, when we come into worship and fellowship with Him, we should offer up praises to our God from the fruit of our lips, telling God just how wonderful and Holy He is… and how much we love Him and His works.
Just a little side note, don’t confuse praise and thanksgiving. We PRAISE God for who He is. We THANK God for what He’s done. You see, all hell can be breaking loose in your life… and in those moments, many times, your flesh doesn’t FEEL like thanking God. Nonetheless, God is WORTHY of our praise, no matter what’s going on in our lives. So we PRAISE him..not just with our actions, but with our lips also.
Start by declaring your love for God today. All it takes is three words. You can scream it, you can shout it, you can cry it out, you can sing it, you can whisper it... in your car, in your home, at your job, in the elevator, walking on the treadmill, eating pizza. You don’t have to wait to pray to tell the Lord you love him.
Get into the habit of declaring your love for God. Watch Him show you how much he loves you too!
