A Valentine for Jesus :: By Robert Asher Mandel

When I was a young boy growing up in the Jewish faith, I would say the same prayer every night before sleep. It was a recitation of a commandment from our God found in Deuteronomy 6:5, which Jesus referred to as the “greatest commandment.”

“And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.”

Since becoming a Christ-follower, I have thought and prayed a lot about how to keep that commandment. In the old covenant (specifically Dt. 6:5), I knew what I had to do. After reading the gospel accounts, I knew who to love and why. Yet still remaining was the question of how to love Him! Every sermon I ever heard on the subject told me that the way to show our love to Jesus is to do this and that and then this other thing. Frankly, it sounded a lot like the Law I had just left! I wanted to show God my love for Him by my obedience, yes, just as Jesus told us to do in John 14:15,

“If you love me, keep my commands.”

But the sermon I kept waiting to hear (and never have heard yet) was the one where they told us how to obtain MORE love for Christ so that we would obey Him in increasing measure. In this article, I would like to relate a few verses and thoughts the Lord has shared with me over the years as I have prayed for wisdom on this subject.

I think it would honor God if we used His own Word in Deuteronomy 6:5 as a template for our discussion.

1 – With all your heart… Offer Daily Thanks and Praise!

“The Lord inhabits the praises of His people” (Psalm 122:3).

The Bible reminds us that the Holy Spirit will assist us in prayer. One way in which I have seen this happen is when I offer up thanks and praise to the Lord. As I am doing this, the Holy Spirit actually increases my worship by bringing things to my mind for which to thank and praise God that I had not thought of on my own. This enhanced praise experience creates within me a greater appreciation for God and more love for Christ, the “funnel” through which God blesses us!

2 – With all your heart… Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!

In John 17:26, there is a very interesting verse.

“I have revealed you to them, and I will continue to do so. Then your love for me will be in them, and I will be in them.”

How did Jesus reveal the Father to us? By every word He spoke and every deed He performed! In John 14:9, 10, He reminded Phillip,

“Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me.”

Let’s trace the glorious sequence of cause and effect in this awesome passage… The more we study the words and deeds of Jesus, the more the Father is revealed to us; the more the Father is revealed to us, the more we will come to possess His love for His Son!

Putting this all together, we can see that by continually reading the words and deeds of Christ, we have been promised that the Father’s love for the Son will remain strong within us. If you suspect that you need to refresh your love for Christ, then re-acquaint yourself with how He revealed the Father to us, and the promise of John 17:26 will be yours!

3 – With all your mind… Remember His Love for You!

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

Just as a wife responds to her husband’s initiatives of affection, so the Bride of Christ was created to respond to her heavenly Bridegroom’s initiatives in the same way. Re-acquaint yourself with the depth and breadth of God’s love for you! Revisit the passages where God explains His love for His Bride. Start a file of these, and add to it every time you find another good verse on this topic. Refer to it weekly! You will find your love for Him rise up again in response.

4 – With all your mind… Re-acquaint yourself with the great sins Jesus forgave you!

“I tell you, her sins – and they are many – have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love” (Lk.7:47).

Here is the thing to remember… our sins were as great as those of the adulterous woman! So why did she love Jesus more than some of us do? Could it be that we have “forgotten the pit from which we were dug”? We don’t like to think about our sins, but maybe there is benefit in doing so. Recalling what I was and where I would have been without the Lord’s rescue helps me to stir up the embers of my affection for Jesus.

5 – With all your mind… Keep a journal of answered prayers…

God Himself has written a small prayer journal in Psalm 78 to remind His people of some of the things He has done for them. Why don’t we do the same? The old hymn says:

“Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God has done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord has done!”

Psalm 77:11 is a good verse to emulate in our own lives…

“I shall remember the deeds of the Lord; Surely I will remember Your wonders of old.”

One of the problems we have in loving God with all our mind is that our minds are forgetful! I have found that keeping a prayer journal has revealed to me how faithful and gracious the Lord has been to me. Whenever I need to refresh my love for Him, I simply refer back to my journal and relive the joy of answered prayer as I am reminded of all of the good works of the Lord on my behalf. This stirs up my love for God all over again! This is why the psalmist wrote,

“I love the LORD because he hears and answers my prayers” (Ps. 116:1).

6 – With all your mind… Meditate on the perfection of the person of Christ…

“Then the LORD told him, ‘Make a replica of a poisonous snake and attach it to the top of a pole. Those who are bitten will live if they simply look at it!'” (Num. 21:7).

“And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life” (Jn. 3:14-15).

I have heard it said that the opposite of love is not hate but apathy. The most intimate devotional time I ever had with the Lord was 30 minutes I spent during one lunch hour just thinking about the perfection of the character of Christ! It was as if I stood gazing up at the serpent Moses placed on the pole – – I was healed of the toxin of my apathy and revived with love for Christ!

7 – With all your strength… Recruit Prayer Partners!

Ask others to pray that God would increase your love for the Savior!

“I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you” (Mt. 18:19).

“Prayer partners.” Even the term sounds old-fashioned. But, could it be that our grandparents knew something about the power of prayer that we have forgotten? Just as Jonathan and his armor-bearer took a hill together and led the Israelites to a great victory over their enemies (1 Sam. 14), we can win victories through prayers agreed with by spiritual comrades in arms.

8 – With all your strength… Obey more and He will reveal more of Himself to you! “Those who obey my commandments are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them, and I will love them. And I will reveal myself to each one of them” (John 14:21).

Here again, is a very compelling cause and effect. Greater obedience brings greater revelation of God. Does it not stand to reason that a greater revelation of God would bring to our hearts more love for Him as well!? It is an exciting possibility, which motivates me to obedience!

This week, as we celebrate Valentine’s Day, I invite you all to begin a quest to obtain from the Father the very thing He would so delight to give us – – more love for His Son!

Asher Mandel, [email protected]

P.S. >> If anyone comes up with #9 or 10, please let me know. I am still on the same quest!

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