I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live. (Psalm 116:1-2 ESV) There are a lot of reasons a lot of us have for either loving God or hating God. If you don’t believe in God, a similar argument can be made about why we love or hate people. The argument is simple: I love a God (or people) because God does what I want and meets my needs, the way I want them met. In fact, if we think about it, most of us as kids hated our parents in moments when they met our needs in ways other than the way we wanted them to. So on my birthday, I thought about this reality– is the reason I love God motivated out of how He fulfills my needs and keeps me satiated, or is it because I know that God is there listening to my cries for mercy despite the fact that He doesn’t have to love me because I don’t fulfill the Biblical model of how He wants to be loved. If you don’t know what that model is, God wants to be loved unconditionally and earnestly– He wants us to be clingy and not cheat on Him. Human history teaches us that we are all cheaters and that we do our best to not be clingy and that our love is conditional at best. Yet, despite all of that, God still loves us and shows us His love by listening and inclining Himself to us. This is amazing! That we do not have a petty, self absorbed God, but a generously loving one whom patiently suffers injustice for us and ultimately walks with those who betray Him. This is our God and that is why I love Him. Why do you love God?