296. “Love,” as it is called, refers to an emotion that is pure and without blemish, where you use your heart to love, to feel, and to be thoughtful. In love there are no conditions, no barriers, and no distance. In love there is no suspicion, no deceit, and no cunning. In love there is no distance and nothing impure. If you love, then you will not deceive, complain, betray, rebel, exact, or seek to gain something or to gain a certain amount. If you love, then you will gladly sacrifice and endure hardship, and you will become compatible with Me. You will give up your all for Me: your family, your future, your youth, and your marriage. Otherwise your love would not be love at all, but rather deceit and betrayal!
298. A man who truly loves God and has the truth is one who is loyal to God, but does not outwardly reveal so. He is willing to practice the truth when matters arise and does not speak or act in a manner going against his conscience. He demonstrates wisdom when matters arise and is principled in his deeds, no matter the circumstances. A man such as this is one who truly serves.
from “Believing in God Should Focus on Reality, Not Religious Rituals” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
299. The path of believing in God is the path of loving Him. If you believe in Him you must love Him; however, loving Him doesn’t only refer to repaying His love or loving Him based on the feelings of the conscience—it is a pure love for God. … If you only use your conscience you will be unable to rouse your love for God; when you really feel His loveliness in your heart your spirit will be moved by Him, and it is only at that time that your conscience will be able to play its original role. That is to say that when people have been moved by God in their spirits and when their hearts have gained knowledge and encouragement, that is, after they have gained experience, only then will they be able to effectively love God with their consciences. Loving God with your conscience is not wrong—this is the lowest level of loving God. Mankind’s way of love of just barely doing justice to God’s grace absolutely cannot impel their proactive entering in. When people obtain some of the work of the Holy Spirit, that is, when they see and taste God’s love in their practical experience, when they have some knowledge of God and truly see that God is so worthy of mankind’s love and how lovely He is, only then are people able to genuinely love God.
from “Genuine Love for God Is Spontaneous” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
300. If you are unable to summon the strength within you to love God, then how can you pray? You should say: “O God! My heart is incapable of truly loving You, I wish to love You but I lack the strength. What should I do? I wish for You to open the eyes of my spirit, I wish for Your Spirit to touch my heart, so that before You I am divested of all passive states, and unconstrained by any person, matter, or thing; my heart I completely lay bare before You, such that my entire being is devoted before You, and You may test me however You wish. Now, I give no thought to my prospects, nor am I bound by death. Using my heart that loves You, I wish to seek the way of life. All things and events are in Your hands, my fate is in Your hands, and, moreover, my life is controlled by Your hands. Now, I pursue the love of You, and regardless of whether You let me love You, regardless of how Satan interferes, I am determined to love You.” When you encounter such things, you pray in this way. If you do so every day, the strength to love God will gradually rise up.
from “Concerning the Practice of Prayer” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
301. It is hoped that you can love God with all your heart, with all your mind, and with all your strength, just as how you cherish your own life. Is this not a life of the utmost meaning? Where else could you find the meaning of life? Would that not be so blind? Are you willing to love God? Is God worthy of man’s love? Are people worthy of man’s adoration? So what should you do? Love God boldly, without reservations—and see what God will do to you. See if He will slay you. In sum, the task of loving God is more important than copying and writing things down for God. You should give first place to what’s most important, so that your life has more meaning and is full of happiness, and then you should wait for God’s “sentence” for you. I wonder if your plan will include loving God—I would that everyone’s plans become that which is completed by God, and become reality.
from “Interpretation of the Forty-second Utterance” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
302. Having faith in God, you should not solely seek blessings, but seek to love God and know God. Through His enlightenment and your own pursuit, you can eat and drink His word, develop a true understanding of God, and have a true love of God that comes from your heart. In other words, your love for God is most genuine, such that none can destroy or stand in the way of your love for Him. Then you are on the right track of faith in God. It proves that you belong to God, for your heart has been taken possession of by God and you can then be possessed by nothing else. Owing to your experience, the price you paid, and the work of God, you are able to develop an unbidden love for God. Then you are freed from the influence of Satan and live in the light of God’s word. Only when you have broken free from the influence of darkness can you be deemed to have gained God. In your belief of God, you must seek this goal. This is the duty of each of you.
from “You Ought to Live for the Truth Since You Believe in God” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
303. The first step of truly loving God and being gained by Him is to completely turn your heart toward God. In every single thing that you do, search yourself and ask: “Am I doing this based on a heart of love for God? Is there any personal intention in it? What is my actual goal in doing this?” If you want to hand your heart over to God you must first subdue your own heart, give up on all of your own intentions, and achieve the point of being completely for God. This is the path to practice giving your heart to God. What does subduing one’s own heart refer to? It is letting go of the extravagant desires of one’s flesh, not coveting the blessings of status or coveting comfort, doing everything to satisfy God, and that one’s heart can fully be for Him, not for one’s own sake.
from “Genuine Love for God Is Spontaneous” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
304. Genuine love for God comes from deep within the heart; it is a love that only exists on the basis of mankind’s knowledge of God. When someone’s heart completely turns toward God then they have love for God, but that love is not necessarily pure and it’s not necessarily complete. This is because there is a certain distance between a person’s heart completely turning toward God and that person having a genuine understanding of God and a genuine adoration for Him. The way for someone to achieve true love of God and to know God’s disposition is to turn their heart toward God. After they give their true heart over to God, they will begin to enter into the experience of life, and this way their disposition will start to change, their love for God will gradually grow, and their knowledge of God will also gradually increase.
from “Genuine Love for God Is Spontaneous” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
306. God’s substance is not just for man to believe in; it is, moreover, for man to love. But many of those who believe in God are incapable of discovering this “secret.” People don’t dare to love God, nor do they try to love Him. They have never discovered that there is so much that is lovable about God, they have never discovered that God is the God who loves man, and that He is the God who is for man to love. The loveliness of God is expressed in His work: Only when they experience His work can people discover His loveliness, only in their actual experiences can they appreciate the loveliness of God, and without observing it in real life, no one can discover God’s loveliness. … Regardless of how much people love the God in heaven, there is nothing real about this love, and it is full of human ideas. No matter how little their love for the God on earth, this love is real; even if there is only a little of it, it is still real. God causes people to know Him through real work, and through this knowledge He gains their love. It’s like Peter: If he hadn’t lived with Jesus, it would have been impossible for him to adore Jesus. So, too, was his loyalty toward Jesus built upon his engagement with Jesus. To make man love Him, God has come among man and lives together with man, and all that He makes man see and experience is the reality of God.
from “Those Who Love God Will Forever Live Within His Light” in The Word Appears in the Flesh
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