How to Love an Invisible God

4. We Love God by Giving Thanks

Don’t you just love to hear the phrase, “Thank you”? Imagine how God feels hearing our appreciation for His many blessings in life.

“Therefore I will give thanks to you among the nations, Lord; I will sing praises about your name.” (Psalm 18:49)

Showing appreciation to God is like a child showing appreciation to their earthly father. Giving thanks affirms God’s authority over our lives. Great for us, there are many ways to give thanks including prayer, song, and dance.

5. We Love God by Growing in Knowledge and Wisdom

Loving an invisible God is not easy. If we don’t practice and remind ourselves how, we can forget. And just as a committed and loving relationship takes time and practice, so does your love for God. As you practice love for Him, your heart will grow for Him.

While love is an action that comes from the heart, it can also be fostered and grown through our knowledge of God, and the wisdom of His ways. Knowledge is perfected through study. Wisdom is perfected through experience.

God’s word is a source of great wisdom when it comes to love:

“Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love—but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-13)

Wisdom is what we develop as we try to live out the act of loving God. We take our knowledge and apply what we learn into our daily lives. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

As we grow we will find that loving an invisible God is indeed possible. And while our love for Him may never be perfected this side of eternity, our baby steps of trust and obedience toward our Father’s arms will build our love for him. He will strengthen us with the ability to love the way Christ does.

Just as the ability to hear God’s voice takes practice, trust, and obedience, so does learning to see all the ways God surrounds you with His love.

“We love because He first loved us.” (1 John 4:19)

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