For the past few weeks I’ve been posting about the love of God. His love is so amazing that I probably only scratched the surface.
My goal was to give us what we need in order to show our love for the Lord. We needed that foundation to know how to love our God.
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.”
John 15:9 NIV
Jesus, in His time with the disciples, passed on the love of the Father to us. By seeing how Jesus loved, we understand the Father’s love. He has asked us to remain, live, dwell, or abide in this love. This tells me that to love God we must draw from His love.
It’s only as I live in and experience the love of Christ, that I’m truly equipped to show love to Him. If I can’t receive His love, I can’t return it. I love Him because He first loved me. How is it that His love helps me to love Him?
Let’s look at one of the first places in Scripture that it tells us about how to love God.
The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
Deuteronomy 30:6 NIV
Because of the wholehearted love which God has for us we need to return it. The problem is that we’re unable to. Our hearts are sinful, full of baggage, junk, and sin. Only He can perform the necessary surgery my heart needs.
In order to love God, our hearts must be circumcised. But, what does it mean to circumcise our hearts?
In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ,
Colossians 2:11 NIV
The fact is that there’s no way my sinful nature could ever love God. Or even want to love God, for that matter. There must be a work done in us by the Spirit of Christ.
This is why time with Him is so important. He does not do this work in us without our permission. In Philippians 3:18-19, Paul wrote that many believers live as enemies of the cross. Their focus is on earthly things. The way God loves us, He doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment.
For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh…
Philippians 3:3 NIV
This is how a life of loving God should be. We must allow the Holy Spirit to lead us into the love and worship of God.
The truth is that our flesh cannot and will not free itself from the stain of sin. The clean-up process must come from an outside source – the Holy Spirit.
As I spend time in the spirit, I am allowing the Holy Spirit to do the work of spiritual circumcision that only He can do. He can bring my heart to the place where I can truly love God in the way that He deserves.
It’s not a matter of more will power or trying harder. It’s making yourself available to the Spirit for Him to accomplish that transforming work. That’s why it’s so important to spend time daily in the Lord’s presence.
Question: How much time do spend daily in prayer and in the Word of God?
© 2026 Nick Zaccardi
The Spirit and the Word 