The Love of God

To love God means to accept His love. God wants to be your only Lord, your only love (cf. Ex 20:5; Deut 5:9). He calls us to conversion which always has two elements, turning “to” and turning “away from”. We are to turn away from everything that pushes us away from the only Lord, whom we belong to. We are to turn away from our egoism which desires securities, and which is deeply set in our souls. If you had formed some system of security and God had then caused your “manna” to rot, then remember He did this out of love. God strips you of that which is your enslavement and which leads to lack of faith in His love. He is the only Lord, yours and your “manna’s”, that is to say, the Lord of your daily bread and your existence. Everything depends on Him. He, whether you acknowledge it or not, will remain the only Lord, but He is the Lord who loves you. He does not want you to get lost in a false kingdom of a false god, because that kingdom will destroy you.
 
The gospel says that you cannot serve two masters. The word douleuein [to serve] in Greek means the type of servitude a slave is engaged in for his master. A slave does not have time for himself, does not dictate what he will accept or not. A slave is not a cherry picker or disputes over the rules established by the master. The master controls the slave’s time completely and always. You need to give God everything; you need to know how to give Him that which is His; that is the program of our conversion. You must also accept His jealous love and accept Him as the only treasure, the only love. You are His possession including everything you own: your body and soul, your work which is dependent on Him, your home which is His, your children who belong to Him, and your time which you often dole out to Him like a miser, despite the fact that all of your time also belongs to Him.

Fr. Stan