There are many reasons why I love G-D, the least being because He commands me to love Him. You see my love for the L-RD G-D of Israel has to go beyond a commandment. How would you feel if you were loved by your children or your spouse only because you had commanded them to love you. What type of relationship would that be…

 When in Deuteronomy 6: 4 G-D says “you shall love the L-RD your G-D with all your hear, mind and strength” That word “shall” is it a command or is it the results, a reaction, a response to His goodness and His blessings  He has showered on your life?

Is He speaking to us of a future relationship we will have with Him?

Can anybody love because they are forced to love? I don’t think so; you can’t make me love you. But you can win my heart and I will love you as a result of you first loving me. That is the “Shall” we find in Deuteronomy 6:4. He leaves me no other choice but to love Him. How can I experience His goodness and not have it effect my heart?

His word tell me He loved me first, He perused me; I didn’t go looking for Him. I was too caught up in my mud (without straw I might add) to have time to love Him, so He came to me and delivered me from the mire clay. Isaiah 53:6 says “All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way”… and Ezekiel 34:12 reminds us of the love of G-D… “As a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep, so will I seek out My sheep and deliver them from all the places where they were scattered on a cloudy and dark day.

No matter what happens to me, no matter what trials come my way, it will never change the fact that G-D loves me. Why do I love G-D? I have no other choice; it’s a response to His love for me. He said it right, knowing that once I teased and saw that the L-RD was good I would love Him  “You ‘Shall’ love the L-RD your  G-D.