Several decades ago, a church in southeast Missouri invited a young evangelist in Arkansas to preach a week-long revival meeting at their church. The evangelist accepted the invitation and, when he arrived for the first service, he sensed a real spirit of revival already existed.

As the meeting progressed, it seemed the Lord had His hand of blessing on each service in a glorious way with an unusual anointing on the preacher. The congregation was expectant, responsive and rejoicing in the Lord (Philippians 4:4).

A particularly memorable message was entitled, “Lord, Do It Again.” Along with personal illustrations, numerous accounts of God’s mighty miracles in the lives of Bible characters came to life. It was a hallelujah time!

The next evening, before the evangelist began to preach, the pastor of the church announced there would be a “popcorn” testimonial service. Anyone in the congregation who wished to do so would stand and simply say, “I love the Lord,” then immediately be seated. When it was time to begin, it was an amazing sight to see as worshippers all over the sanctuary, by turn, began spontaneously to “pop” up, to fervently proclaim their love for the Lord. What a powerful worship service! It was not one that can be duplicated by us, only orchestrated by the Lord Himself. It made you want to say, “Lord, do it again.”

(An added note: All these decades later, that evangelist–no longer young–is still living in Arkansas and still busy preaching in revivals. The pastor of the church there in Missouri – after relocating that church twice due to unusual growth – eventually moved to Arkansas and continues to pastor in this great state. Amen!)

The Bible, of course, addresses every subject imaginable and there is much to be found in it regarding our love for God. I John 4:8 tells us Who God is, “God is love,” and in Verse 19 we find the reason we love the Lord, “We love Him, because He first loved us.”

Take a walk down the Romans Road of the Bible (chapters 3, 5, 6 and 10 to name a few) and you will find a description of who we were before we came to know Jesus as Savior. We are told, “There is none righteous (apart from God’s salvation); there is none that seeketh after God; there is none (of us) that doeth good, no, not one; for all have sinned” and the wages of our sin is death both physical and spiritual.

Of course, the good news throughout the Scriptures is that God loved us and gave His precious Son to pay our sin debt and provide eternal life for all who would accept Him as Savior and Lord (John 3:16). When we have done that, we find that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost,” (Romans 5:5) giving us the ability to truly love God and others.

While there are so many reasons we could explore for loving our Lord, it seems my thoughts today center on the things that prove our love. Jesus said in John 14:15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” and these are found right there in the Bible to remind us. In John 14:17, Jesus commanded, “that ye love one another.” It is worded in I John 3:14, “We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren (other Christians). We find in Luke 6:27, “Love your enemies (ouch!): do good to them that hate you.”

Psalms 97:10 simply states, “Ye that love the Lord, hate evil.” Proverbs 6:16-19 gives us an idea of some of the things God hates. If we truly love God, we will share His holy hatred for wickedness and evil. We will not embrace it or excuse it in our lives or the lives of others.

A final thought is that, when we love the Lord, we will love the things He loves. Christ loved the church and died for it (Ephesians 5:25). Jesus had such a passion for the house of God it was described in John 2:17, “The zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up (consumed Me).”Jesus loved and esteemed the Word of God even above His name as found in Psalm 138:2, “For Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy name.” In Hebrews 10:2, we see that Jesus set the example of loving the will of God when He said, “Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God.”

We say it, not only with our words, but especially with our life, “I love the Lord.”

Randy Zinn is pastor of Russell Missionary Baptist Church, Russell, Ark.; formerly of Okmulgee.