Loving God 10

(Deuteronomy 13:4) The verse tells us that we are challenged by false prophets; “for God, your Lord, is testing you to know whether you love God, your Lord with all your heart and all your soul.” Nachmanides explains that God wills to measure our love for Him, in order that we can realize the intensity of our love.

There are two important applications of this concept:

1) We are not always aware of how much we love someone else. There are moments when a husband and wife look at each other and experience the full passion of their love with an intensity that is often clouded by the daily challenges of life. There are moments when we observe a child and feel the overpowering love we have for him. It is difficult to hold on to such intense love when involved with all the responsibilities of raising a child. We can lose sight of the intensity of love we feel for another. This is also true of our love of God. God tests our love, meaning that He provides us with the same type of moments shared by a husband and wife and experienced by a parent for a child, moments in which we can experience the intensity of love we have for Him.

2) We can take advantage of each test to experience our love for God. Nachmanides teaches us that many of our tests are for just that encounter. Each time we are confronted by a false idea we should understand that it is our love of God that is being tested. Moments of doubt share the same genetic material as the words of a false prophet.