Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind.
Luke 10,27
Loving God, – how do we do that?  Sometimes we are in an ecstatic mood and feel like shouting “Hallelujah” from the rooftops.  And sometimes we are down in the dumps, and there is just no energy for a “Hallelujah”.  And yet, loving God … how?
We regard love as an emotional, spiritual, instinctive matter.  We love those who love us.  We feel indifferent toward the rest.  We dislike those who criticise us.  When we meet someone for the first time we rely on our instincts to decide whether this person is sympathetic toward us and worth loving, or unsympathetic and not worth our time and effort.  We love God when He does great things for us, allowing us to feel joy and peace.
But for God that is not enough.  He wants much more!  He expects more in terms of our love for Him, but also in terms of our love for our brothers and sisters.  He wants a love that is not dependent on, but inclusive of emotions.  Love that does not wane, even when times are hard.
He loves us, whether we worship Him or turn our backs on Him.  He loves us, whether we seek His presence or find ourselves on the wrong path.  He loves us, even when we fall back on our sinful ways.  His love is not dependent on our deeds or our likability.  He IS love.  Therefore He can love everyone and everything, without any problems.  (He hates sin and wants to free us from sin;  because He loves the sinner!)
If Jesus lives in us, He can make us capable of love.  We are no longer dependent on sympathy or antipathy;  We are above that.  Once Jesus rules our hearts, we become capable of distinguishing between sin and sinner, to love the sinner as Jesus loves him.  Once Jesus lives in us, God’s undying love rules us.
If we were to produce everything ourselves, love would soon be extinguished, because we are so often disappointed.  It is so much easier to live out this Jesus-love.  For that we need a pure heart, a heart in which Jesus lives.
Thank You Jesus,  you create in me the capability to love!  Before I knew You, I could only love those who liked me.  But I could not even love myself.  Thank You for filling my heart with love!  It is good and liberating to be able to give and to receive love!