eaglei Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 How do you KNOW that you love God/Jesus? This is a serious question that I don't know quite how to clarify. I am not looking for Biblical backup or proof (and definitely not looking for debate :)). I am asking about the *personal* aspects. How do you KNOW that you love God/Jesus? What is it that you feel, or sense, or are aware of, or perceive, or have the impression of, or . . . I have wanted to ask this question for a long time, but IRL people tend to consider the questioner as having two heads, five noses, feet where the ears go - you know - as very strange. But I wonder how other people describe this *knowing* of their love for God/Jesus. :001_smile: I'm getting off the computer now, but I'll check back later today. I am both curious and eager to read the replies . . . :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mama Geek Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 I just hate it when people answer a question with a question, but here it goes anyway...how do you know you love your spouse or your kids or your parents? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
********* Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 I know I love Jesus because... I desire, more than anything else in life, to follow Him, be like Him, fulfill His will for my life, and serve Him. I am willing to give all (yes, ALL) for Him. I'd do whatever He wanted me to do. It might not always be EASY to do whatever He wants me to do, but my heart's desire is to serve Him in all ways. That's the best I can explain it. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca VA Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 My ears perk up when I hear Scripture. I feel as though the Lord is speaking directly to me, and my heart just melts. I want to be around people who love Him -- they feel like family to me, even if I've just met them. The topic of God (when it's discussed in a serious, reverent way) interests me tremendously. I don't want to displease God in any way, though I fail miserably each day. However, He gives me encouragement to keep trying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnowWhite Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 I agree with both of the previous posters. Here are some more ideas: He is my top priority. If I had to choose between displeasing Him and displeasing anyone else, nobody else stands a chance of competing. Worship time thrills my soul, whether it is praise music or prayer time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little Nyssa Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 I'm not sure I can put this coherently, but a deep sense of connectedness and mutual affection, combined with a wish to be obedient. I don't think I can really explain it because I think it's kind of a mystery. So maybe it's OK if you can't really explain or define it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglei Posted August 20, 2012 Author Share Posted August 20, 2012 Thank you everyone! Your answers have been very heartening! :) Would anyone else like to respond? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merry gardens Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 One quote I read somewhere goes something like this: How can you say you love God, Whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor*, whom you can see? (*see the story of the Good Samaritan regarding the question, "Who is my neighbor?".) Jesus' commanded us to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves. If we love Him, we will follow His commands. We show our love for God in large part by showing love to others. Prayer, Bible reading and worship are all wonderful--and important!--but they mean very little if we are not loving towards other people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 Thank you everyone! Your answers have been very heartening! :) Would anyone else like to respond? I just wanted to tell you that I don't think your question is strange, and I have asked almost the same thing here before. I think I phrased it, "What does it mean to you when you say you love Jesus?" Something like that. I'm really not a great example because I have serious doubts about many elements of the Christian faith and sometimes I don't even call myself a Christian. BUT - what is important to me is that I want to be like Jesus; I think of myself as a vessel that I long to overflow with the love of God. I want to radiate Divine Love towards people. I want people to see the Fruit of the Spirit in my life. That is what I aspire to. Also, sometimes if I'm reading about the teachings of Jesus, or once in a great while, seeing an artist's rendition of Jesus, it brings a tender sense to my spirit, sort of like looking at a picture of your children would. It just makes me feel, "This is Someone precious." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kengjw Posted August 20, 2012 Share Posted August 20, 2012 Thank you for daring to ask this question especially one that is so honest like this one. For me, the more I go thru life with Him, the more I know Him. The more I know Him, the more I love Him. Every time I think about how much He loves me and that He loves me FIRST, I cannot help but love Him. Everytime I think of Him, a sense of gratefulness comes over me. I feel so safe with Him by my side....not to mention the freedom when I am around Him. No other human has made me feel that way. He is the only one whom I can be absolutely ME and I know that I know, I do not have to hold back when it comes to Him because He knows me in and out. The more I know Him, the more I am aware of who I am. The more I am aware of "me", the more grateful I am that He loves me especially when I know how much I don't deserve his love. The more I know Him, the more I want to be like Him. It is like once you tasted His love, you can't get enough of it. Honestly, I do not think I could love Him if I don't know Him personally, deep in my soul. No amount of scriptures, books or people can make me love Him. Doing life with Him thru thick and thin is what convinced me of his presence and love for me. Sorry for going on and on...it is so hard to put my thoughts into words :0) Julia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sumiller Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 I would agree with all pp's and just add one thing... even when the hour is dark, and my heart is breaking and I've pleaded with Him for relief and answers to prayer and still I don't yet see it...I don't desire to turn my back and walk away. I love Him because I KNOW He first loved me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milovany Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 (edited) I know because I go. :tongue_smilie: Sounds funny, but until we committed to the very, very institutional (teasing you, Bethany!) church we are a part of now, my commitment to Christ and my love for Him were based on feelings and/or what was going on in my personal life and/or whatever my own understanding was. Our church membership (which at times was a home fellowship) came and went with different moves, different preferences, different understanding/convictions, etc. Now, as a member of the ancient Orthodox church, He and His Body (the Church) just are -- not in an impersonal way, but in an established, purposeful way -- and we can be a part of this gift He designed (or not). Because I've found it to be such an amazing gift in all aspects, and because it touches and changes me in the ways He designed for it to, I want to just be there and be a part of it and live it. It's a whole-life thing in ways I tried to make up before. I'm so, so thankful. It's His Body, and I love it. In loving it, I'm loving HIM. That probably made no sense and I apologize. It's just how I could think to word it. Edited August 21, 2012 by milovaný Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenniferB Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 How do you KNOW that you love God/Jesus? What is it that you feel, or sense, or are aware of, or perceive, or have the impression of, or . . . When I feel my fingers pressed together touching my forehead, my heart, my right shoulder, then my left shoulder, I KNOW I love Him. When I feel my body crouched over and my head touching the hard, solid floor, I KNOW I love Him. When I feel my priest covering my head with his stole and tapping my head north, south, east, west while pronouncing my sins are forgiven, I KNOW I love Him. When I sense the reverent, humble souls surrounding me as I worship, I KNOW that I love Him. When I am aware of the coming of the Dread Judgement Seat and I remember the Resurrection, I KNOW I love Him. When I perceive the Holy examples of the Saints and the Mother of God, I KNOW I love Him. When I have the distinct impression that I am poor and needy in my soul and my God is my aid, I KNOW that I love Him. Finally, when I remember Him saying, "Do you believe that *I* can do this?" and my answer is "Yea LORD!" I KNOW that I love Him, and He loves me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeDeeMarie Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 What wonderful posts, reading them just makes my heart swell:) Whenever I read these verses, it just AMAZES me. Especially when I pick up a handful of sand. Love so amazing..... Psalm 139:17,18 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rose in BC Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 I would agree with all pp's and just add one thing... even when the hour is dark, and my heart is breaking and I've pleaded with Him for relief and answers to prayer and still I don't yet see it...I don't desire to turn my back and walk away. I love Him because I KNOW He first loved me. :iagree: this is how I feel as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amyrjoy Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 My ears perk up when I hear Scripture. I feel as though the Lord is speaking directly to me, and my heart just melts. I want to be around people who love Him -- they feel like family to me, even if I've just met them. The topic of God (when it's discussed in a serious, reverent way) interests me tremendously. I don't want to displease God in any way, though I fail miserably each day. However, He gives me encouragement to keep trying. Everyone has written such wonderful things. This in particular is so sweet. I'm thankful for this thread! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 I love Jesus because I felt his love for me. I was at a very low point in my life. I remember sitting on the beach watching my kids and just thinking I cant' do it all I need help. I just starting praying and felt this incredible peace all my worries were just gone. I had this incredible feeling of being cherished. I feel that love everyday even in the missed of great difficulty (my mom has cancer, my dad Alzheimer's) I'm a nurse in a high stress e/r but no matter what the world throws at me. I feel his love. He takes all my worries away And the more I feel Jesus love and I fall in love with the Lord. I have a driving desire to be like him. I want to be in church, read scripture, talk about him with everyone. He is my driver in this world. I changed because of his love in my heart. I can tell when I start walking the wrong path (cause I'm human and do sin) He gently chastises me and shows me my sinful though path. HE IS the ultimate father. I hope when someone meets me or talks to me in my everyday life that they see Jesus through me. I guess that the ultimate love. Similar to how your kids at young ages see you as their whole world and want to wear your shoes and b you. That kinda of like what it is to be a person walking in the loving spirit of Jesus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HappyCrazyMama Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 You EO people with your beauty and your tradition and your humility and your love . . . you're getting to me :). I know because I go. :tongue_smilie: Sounds funny, but until we committed to the very, very institutional (teasing you, Bethany!) church we are a part of now, my commitment to Christ and my love for Him were based on feelings and/or what was going on in my personal life and/or whatever my own understanding was. Our church membership (which at times was a home fellowship) came and went with different moves, different preferences, different understanding/convictions, etc. Now, as a member of the ancient Orthodox church, He and His Body (the Church) just are -- not in an impersonal way, but in an established, purposeful way -- and we can be a part of this gift He designed (or not). Because I've found it to be such an amazing gift in all aspects, and because it touches and changes me in the ways He designed for it to, I want to just be there and be a part of it and live it. It's a whole-life thing in ways I tried to make up before. I'm so, so thankful. It's His Body, and I love it. In loving it, I'm loving HIM. That probably made no sense and I apologize. It's just how I could think to word it. When I feel my fingers pressed together touching my forehead, my heart, my right shoulder, then my left shoulder, I KNOW I love Him. When I feel my body crouched over and my head touching the hard, solid floor, I KNOW I love Him. When I feel my priest covering my head with his stole and tapping my head north, south, east, west while pronouncing my sins are forgiven, I KNOW I love Him. When I sense the reverent, humble souls surrounding me as I worship, I KNOW that I love Him. When I am aware of the coming of the Dread Judgement Seat and I remember the Resurrection, I KNOW I love Him. When I perceive the Holy examples of the Saints and the Mother of God, I KNOW I love Him. When I have the distinct impression that I am poor and needy in my soul and my God is my aid, I KNOW that I love Him. Finally, when I remember Him saying, "Do you believe that *I* can do this?" and my answer is "Yea LORD!" I KNOW that I love Him, and He loves me. I'm with you and you're still choking me up over here.:) The only thing I could think to say is we love because he first loved us but, while true, that felt so lacking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milovany Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 You EO people with your beauty and your tradition and your humility and your love . . . you're getting to me :). The door is always open over at the Exploring Orthodoxy group. Patty Joanna will make you a cup of coffee if you come on by. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenniferB Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 You EO people with your beauty and your tradition and your humility and your love . . . you're getting to me :). :grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alenee Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 You EO people with your beauty and your tradition and your humility and your love . . . you're getting to me :). YEP! Just a few of the many reasons we are preparing for baptism in the Orthodox Church. :D :grouphug: In answer to the OP's question... I have always sensed His presence even when I had no foundation upon which to build. One way that I know I love God is when I look at anything that was created by Him, I cannot help but smile and long to be in Heaven. I have this sort of picture in my mind of me bent over at His feet crying in thankfulness...like the woman who wiped Jesus' feet with her tears and hair. I fall short daily but since entering into Orthodoxy, I have begun to know God's love for me in a way I never thought He could; my only response can be that I fall deeper in love with Him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiver0f10 Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 I found this to be helpful: http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/how-do-we-know-if-we-love-christ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglei Posted August 22, 2012 Author Share Posted August 22, 2012 I do not have the words to say a deep enough Thank You to all who have posted. I have read each answer several times, as well as the post at the Desiring God link. At every reading, my heart swells in gratitude and my eyes blur with tears . . . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4Kiddos Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 What wonderful responses! They are so beautiful! Thank you. I loved the Desiring God link... I know that I love the Lord because I just feel overwhelmed with profound gratefulness for His salvation in my life. He has saved me from myself and my sin. He has redeemed my soul and is working to make me more like Himself. What beauty and joy this is! It has carried me through so many difficult trials. I long to please Him with all of my heart and long to spend time with Him in prayer and reading each day. Even more, I long for the hope of heaven where I shall see my precious God face to face. What a glorious day that will be!:001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juniper Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 For me I know, because he first showed me. There was a very dark time in my life, when for all intents and purposes many would think God would have nothing to do with me. In many ways I hated (or at least thought I did) the entire idea of God. When God came to me in that awful place, it turned what I knew about Him on its head. I knew all about church and Christians. I knew what they said about Him, but that was very different than knowing Him. After many years in the church and many bad experiences, I almost forgot what He was really like. I did not fit into any church "model" that I knew of. I was either too conservative or too liberal. (and not in the right ways) Becoming Orthodox is the only thing that repaired my shipwrecked faith. Everything fits in a way that is so restoring. I guess the story continues. I know God loves me, because he found me in darkness and rescued me from devastation. I know I love God, for how could I not love the one who rescues and restores? :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justamouse Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 (edited) It's so hard when we've ingrained in us that works are not a way to loving God. It's a hard root to not only find, but them decide what to do with. Keep it? Dig it up? I know I love Him by my actions. I physically showed my love to my husband when I stood in front of the altar, and married him. I not only love my husband emotionally, in a non tangible way, but also in a *very* tangible, physical way, in an act that is sacred to him and I alone. My love is tangible through the act of bringing forth our family, in raising these children, in the very physical act of serving my family (let's not get into the unbalanced aspect of it!). My love is physically shown by my dreams and aspirations that I've joined to his, so that we form a cohesive unit. That is my love for my Domestic Church. Let's take that out one more circle. I bring my family to church. I cross myself with holy water as I walk in the doors, reminding myself that I am baptized and adopted into the family of God. I genuflect, and pray, "In the name of the Father..." as I face the Tabernacle, showing my reverence and gratefulness. I step into the pew, and the kneelers come down, and I kneel, and pray in front of that tabernacle, showing my love. I join with the family of God in our parish, and we communitivly celebrate the Eucharist and Christ's sacrifice on the cross. We kneel and pray together-not individually-but shared prayers, each one stepping out of our selves, and joining with eachother. We --all of us--physically join together in the Liturgy. My love, if not physically shown, if not physically joined with others, would be an aborted love. It's only fulfilled and expressed in the physical aspect. We are not made as only spirits, we are physical, with senses, with bodies that are expressed on an earth. It's not something I can selfishly keep within myself, it's only fully expressed when shared and that has to be done physically. ETA: Taking it out another circle, into the world- Mother Theresa was asked why she did what she did, and she raised the person's hand, held up his fingers and said, "You Did It To Me." So we act, and know we love, BY our physcial acts of love. We are reciprocating God's love to us, by doing for His people. When we, in humility (because the Priest is not bring Christ down to us, Christ though the Eucharist is lifting us up to Him) take Communion, we are taing Him into ourselves, and celebrating the marriage supper of the Lamb, every week. And, if that's not an act of Love... So, that' how I know. :grouphug: Edited August 22, 2012 by justamouse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommy123 Posted September 12, 2012 Share Posted September 12, 2012 There is so much that could be said, and I did read a few responses and they were beautiful! How do I know that I love God? Because I keep coming back to Him and He comforts the real me. You know, the real me I am when no one is looking at my thoughts or my hearts desires. The real me that is being transformed SLOWLY day by day into the image of His Son. I am commanded to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. I’d like to think I want to obey this, but it is not what I always live out perfectly. Like when I get angry at my kids for interrupting my project, and later realize that in that moment I loved “my kingdom†rather than loving God. Or when I realized I didn’t really WANT to love my neighbor yesterday because he rang the door bell at the wrong time. Sometimes I’m tempted to despair, because I find myself deep down not wanting to love God at times. Instead of despairing that I failed again at loving God, I find great hope and comfort in Christ. Because this is the very reason he came to earth: to live the life I could not live – obeying and fulfilling the law of love perfectly, and He died the death I could not die (taking on himself all God’s wrath for my inability to love Him and others, conquering sin and death He rose from the grave) This is why Christ came, for me when I love “my kingdom†instead of His kingdom or I love “my name†instead of His Name. So instead of despairing, I find great hope and joy that God is that good and I am overwhelmed by His grace. So, what is more reassuring than my love for God is God’s love for me. When I fail to love Him, He comforts me with His love and reminds me I am kept in Jesus and because of Jesus he sees me as He sees Jesus. So he says of me, “this is my (child) whom I love, with (her) I am well pleased.†I am loved not because of my works but because of His. Back to the question… I know I love God because the overall trajectory of my life is a growing desire towards God. My love for God is not perfect, but it has grown from the time I first believed until now. I believe He is the one who has caused this love to grow in me and I trust Him to keep it growing until I see Him face to face. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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