“Blessed is the Man who walks not in the counsel of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but  his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

Psalm 1:1‐2 (ESV)

What does it mean to love God? Many of us use this four letter word to describe our  relationship with the savior. But what does it mean? How do we know that we are loving God well?

In college, I spent a lot of time with my friends. It was easy because most of them stayed  in the same dorm, took the same classes, at at the same tables, etc. We would spend most of  the semester together in close proximity due to the size of the institution I attended. If a friend didn’t show up for class or eat at the same time or was absent when I knocked at their door, it  was obvious. I would pull out my phone and shoot them a quick text to see what they were up  to.

What I am getting at is it was easy to maintain a relationship with people I see every  day. However, once I graduated and we no longer shared life, I grew apart from many of the  people I called friends. Distance causes a physical rift and, if not rigorously maintained, the relationship will begin to disintegrate. I then knew who were my true friends. Those who enjoyed being around me and I enjoyed being around them.

What does this have to do with our relationship with God? Unlike our physical relationships with other humans, God can’t be seen with our eyes or touched with our hands. It is easy to maintain a relationship with someone who is right in front of us. So often, we feel like God is distant and, just like our human relationships, distance can create a rift. While God does not abandon us, we can lose sight of him.

If we truly love God, we will seek to contact him. We will strive to talk with him and  know him. The love of God, revealed to us in scripture, is part of how God has revealed himself to us. It is how we can know him. The more time we dwell in his word, the stronger our relationship with him will be. We will stay in tune with what he wants for our lives and avoid  what the psalmist talks about in v. 1. We will seek to meditate on God’s word and we will delight in scripture. We will actively avoid that which causes us to stumble. Our heavenly relationship, like our earthly ones, grows stronger as we stay in contact with God by reading his word and meditating on it day and night.

This week, seek to spend more time with your savior. Pray and read his word and see  how your relationship grows.