In order to love God, one should be occupied much with Him. This is natural even in human relations; the more you think of someone the more you will love him, and the more you love him the more you will think of him.
Thinking and emotions go along together; the one strengthens the other. This applies to everything in our life, whether the world, a certain talent, or anything else. Therefore the Scripture says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Mt 22: 37)
It is true that when we desire something we continually think of it, and the opposite. So a person ought to think always of the Lord; it is a sign of love to have Him continually in the mind. David the Prophet, in spite of all his involvements as a king and leader, meditates on the Lord’s name and law all the day (Ps 119)!
We also say to the Lord in the Praise Songs: “Your name is sweet and blessed on the mouths of Your saints.” Ask yourself then what place God occupies in your mind; how far you are occupied with Him! Has the world drawn you away from Him? If He does not occur to your mind the whole day and you never mention Him in your talk with the others, you will certainly be deceiving yourself when you say you love Him!!
When a person loves someone he never stops speaking about him. How much do you speak about God? The Virgin in the Song was continually speaking about her beloved and His attributes. “ I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine,” “My beloved is white and ruddy, chief among ten thousand… His mouth is most sweet, yes, he is altogether lovely,” “I have compared you, my love, to my filly among Pharaoh’s chariots.” (Song 6: 3; 2: 16; 5: 10, 16; 1: 9)
You ought not only to think of Him, but also to meditate on His beautiful attributes.
The father priest in the beginning of the Holy Mass focuses on this point in particular, saying to the congregation: “Where are your hearts?” and they say, “They are with the Lord.” Do they say the real fact, or rather what they ought to say?! So many say they love God, but they do not give Him much of their time or thinking! How then do they fulfill the command of love from all the mind? (Mt 22: 37).
Some even are involved with the ministry but do not have God in their minds!!
All their mind is focused on the sermons, the lesion, the activities, constructions, arrangements, management… etc. God has no place in their mind! They may spend long hours in the ministry affairs without mentioning God’s name on their tongues!! They remind me of the words of blaming by some author? “you have spent all your life serving the Lord’s house, when then will you serve the Lord of the house?!”
Such people are very active and vivid, have many achievements in the ministry, but they are far away from God!! He is not the core or the aim of their ministry, nor even the cause or the means! They often break His commandments in the ministry. You ought then to put before you the words of David the Prophet, “I foresaw the Lord always before my face,” or the words of Elijah the Prophet, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand…”(Acts 2: 25; 1 kgs 18: 15).
Be aware that you stand in God’s presence so that He might be in your mind and never be away from it lest the world take you away and God’s love cool down in your heart.
To have God in your mind, read much about Him.
Read about Him that you may know Him; for how could you love Him without knowing Him?! Read about Him not in a scholarly or philosophical way or to write a research or deliver a lesson about Him, but to enter into His depths and let Him into yours. Read about Him that you may know His beautiful attributes and get your mind and heart attached to Him. Read about His dealings with His beloved and His enemies. Read about Him to know that He is fairer than all the sons of men (Ps 45: 2), and to taste and see how good He is (Ps 34: 8). Let your reading be nourishment to your heart, rather than mere knowledge.
When you read much about Him you will find in Him all perfection; you will love Him and say with the Song He is most sweet.
If you do love Him you will continually read about Him as those who love heroes do. You can read about Him in the Holy Scripture, in the saying of the fathers, in the church history, or in the biographies of saints. You can find His hand in every event or story. You will love His wisdom, His power, and His kindness.
To know God reading is not enough, but you should have communion with Him.
Reading will merely open the door for you to enter and taste the sweetness of communion with Him. Try then to have such communion, to take Him as a friend, to reveal to Him your secrets, your thoughts and all your affairs and see what He will do. Try to rely on Him more than you reply on your intellect or talents. Do not take a negative attitude towards Him or separate yourself from Him, for this will not let you taste the Lord and His sweetness. Do establish then a relationship with God and deepen it day after day.
If you have not experienced communion with God while on the earth, how would you live it in eternity? Your love for God here is the taste of the kingdom, so if you taste how good the Lord is you will long for the eternal life.
In order to love God and have Him always in your mind, try to have everything reminding you of Him.
When you look up unto heaven, remember the Psalm, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handwork.” (Ps 19: 1). And when you look unto the earth, say: heaven is God’s throne, and earth is His footstool (Mt 5: 34, 35). Say to Him, heaven and earth pass away, but one jot or one title will by no means pass from Your law (Mt 5: 18); “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. They will perish, but You remain… they will be changed, but You are the same, and Your years will not fail.” (Heb 1: 100-12) Look to the birds in the air or on the trees and say, “They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” How kind is this heavenly Father!
See how beautiful is nature and say: if the nature is so beautiful how much rather would be the Creator of such beauty!
Let your attachment to God be emotional not merely intellectual.
Keep a direct relationship with Him. If you sin you ought to be ashamed of Him not of your father confessor, and say, “Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight.” Establish a relationship with Him, not only with commandments. Let there be a fellowship with Him (1 Jn 1: 6) that leads to keeping His commandments because of love, and fills the whole mind that you may say with the apostle, “we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor 2:16)
Let God be in your mind while you talk with the others or deal with them.
The Lord was in Joseph’s mind when fought by his master’s wife, so he said to her, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Gen 39: 9) Because God was in his mind and on his mouth, so God’s love removed away sin and prevented it from entering his mind and heart.
If God is in the mind He will purify the mind; sanctify it, dwell in it and give it His love.
We do not mean that God occurs to one’s mind but that the mind be occupied with God, attached to Him and finds pleasure in Him. With such attachment the mind will be in such sublimity that no sin may be acceptable to it.
The more God’s love increases the more it prevents any other thought to enter the mind.
At least the mind will not find pleasure in any other worldly thoughts. They will be strange to the mind and unacceptable. As Anba Oor said to his disciple: “My son, let no strange word enter this cell.” Such was the way our holy fathers lived in the desert, with their minds attached to God all the time and dismissing any other thoughts away so that God might be all in all.
Due to their intense love for Him they rejected any other thoughts. They could put into effect the commandment of loving the Lord from all the mind and the heart. They became occupied with Him all their life and all the time.
Whoever has God always in the mind will attain devoting the mind to Him.
The mind becomes holly God’s and the heart is filled with His love escaping the faults of the mind and heart. St. Macarius of Alexandria practiced crucifying the mind for three days in the inner desert. It was not easy, but who attains such a state will also attain continual prayer or meditation.
For when God occupies the mind and is implanted in the subconscious, even the dreams will be holy, as the Virgin in the Song says, “I sleep, but my heart is awake.” (Song 5: 2) Such a state will certainly be attained in eternity, but on the earth we have to do some exercises:
• Do not let one hour pass without having God in your mind, even with a short prayer or meditation.
• Whenever you face a sin, remember that God is in front of you. He sees and hears whatever you do, and notices your senses.
• In your talk with others mention God’s name or commandments simply, or at least remember that he hears your talk.
• Whatever you do, ask yourself if our good God takes part in it or at least consents to it.
• Practice the short prayers like: “O Lord Jesus”. Repeat it many times till it sticks to your subconscious.
So many other ways may lead to God’s love. These will be the subject of the coming articles – God willing.