How to Attain the Love of God
This lecture discusses the spiritual means that help a person reach the love of God and grow in it, explaining that loving God is not merely a passing feeling, but a spiritual relationship that grows through knowledge, fellowship, and union with God. It explains that contemplating God’s beautiful attributes, such as His tenderness, mercy, justice, and forgiveness, fills the heart with love toward Him. It also encourages remembering God’s goodness toward people and not overlooking the small deeds that God values, even when they seem simple in the eyes of human beings. It emphasizes that God does not forget a person’s repentance, tears, or sincere attempts to draw closer to Him.
Spiritual Message
The lecture explains that thinking frequently about God and keeping Him at the center of one’s attention help love grow in the heart, because a person cares about whoever occupies their thoughts and heart. Prayer is also an essential means of reaching the love of God, provided that it is sincere prayer coming from the heart, rather than merely routine words or a formal obligation. A person should ask God to grant them His love as a gift from the Holy Spirit, because the love of God is poured into hearts through the Holy Spirit. A person should also feel God’s presence before them and throughout their daily life, and be ready to hear His voice and notice His work with them.
Educational Lesson
The lecture teaches us the importance of involving God in all our daily activities, whether great or small, and in our thoughts, feelings, words, and relationships with others. It also emphasizes the importance of restoring our spiritual lives and beginning with repentance, because attachment to desires and passions hinders the growth of God’s love. It explains that the fear of God is the beginning of the path toward love. Through respecting and keeping God’s commandments, a person discovers the beauty and delight of virtue, comes to love the commandments and virtue, and then grows in love for God. It also emphasizes the importance of keeping company with people who love God, because a person is influenced by those with whom they live and learns their spiritual qualities.
Practical Application
The lecture calls us to love and serve others, because loving the brother whom a person sees helps them love God whom they do not see, and because serving others can be an offering of service to God Himself. It also encourages us to love everything related to God, such as the Church, the saints, the Word of God and His commandments, His servants, and His children. Another important means is thinking about eternity and not becoming attached to the passing love of the world, but rather caring about eternal life and preparing for it. It advises us not to attribute our problems to God, but to place them before Him so that He may carry them with us, and to attribute every good thing that comes to us to Him, rather than attributing it to ourselves, our efforts, or circumstances. It concludes by emphasizing the need to continue growing in the love of God whenever a person begins to experience it in their heart, while being careful not to hesitate.
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