Loving Our Creator

Loving God

I hesitated a little before writing about loving God, because the concept is so vast and complex. How do you capture the infinite? The truth is, opportunities to show love to the Creator of the universe are woven into every aspect of existence. We express it through our love for our fellow beings, our care for the animals and the planet, our deep-rooted gratitude, the daily practice of the fruits of the Spirit, and our gentle surrender to divine transformation.

Since attempting to cover all that could be encompassed as love for God would create an unreadable dissertation, I’m choosing instead to focus on a few new avenues or expressions of love to God. Let’s zoom in on a few personal and immediately actionable ways we can deepen our love for God.

Life With God

Skye Jethani, in his book With^[1], observes that people often fall into four unhealthy “postures” or ways of relating to God, all of which treat God as a means to an end. These postures are Under, Over, From, and For God. The true, healthy posture—the goal of our communion—is Life With God.

Life Under God – Fear and Legalism

Many religions hold this view, and it is likely the oldest and most dominant posture in religious history. It views God as a demanding authority figure or a judge who must constantly be appeased.

• Belief: If I perfectly follow the rules, rituals, and moral codes, God will be obligated to bless me and protect me from harm.
• Behavior: Obedience driven by fear of punishment or a desire to accumulate spiritual merit. It often focuses on external conformity and rigorous self-discipline.
• Flaw: This posture reduces the Creator to a transactional and often oppressive deity. When an obedient person suffers, their faith is often shattered because the formula (“good behavior = good results”) failed. It leads to legalism, performance anxiety, and ultimately, a distant, fear-based relationship. God is viewed as an unpredictable, controlling boss.
• Verse: “Now it is evident that no one is reckoned as righteous before God by the law, for ‘the one who is righteous will live by faith.’” (Gal 3:11)

Life Over God – Self-Reliance and Rationalism

This view is often seen in highly rational or intellectual circles, where a person believes they have grasped the cosmic “laws” and principles that govern the universe, including God’s activity. Many pastors have written books on unlocking success through God’s universal principles.

• Belief: I understand how the universe and God’s systems work. By applying spiritual laws (like tithing, positive confession, or meditation) to manage and control my own life, I can guarantee success.
• Behavior: Seeking control through knowledge or principle-driven living. God is respected as the brilliant architect, but it’s the algorithms He created, not Him, that people seek.
• Flaw: It replaces the relationship with self-reliance. God is relegated to a distant watchmaker who set the mechanisms in motion but is otherwise uninvolved. This posture often leads to arrogance and a lack of personal intimacy, as one believes they are capable of controlling their own outcomes without needing relationship.
• Verse: Proverbs 3:5-6 reminds us to not lean on our own understanding. Life is also not promised to be easy on the right path, “Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” (2 Tim 3:12) See also Matthew 7:13–14.

Life From God – Consumerism and Entitlement

This is a mindset primarily concerned with the benefits and gifts that can be extracted from the divine relationship. It is the key component of the Prosperity Gospel and a general consumeristic approach to faith.

• Belief: I am entitled to health, wealth, comfort, and success. I engage with God primarily because He provides these blessings.
• Behavior: Seeking God for outcomes. Prayer becomes a persistent demands list; faith is primarily seen as a tool to unlock material benefits.
• Flaw: God is viewed as a divine butler. If life takes a turn for the worse (illness, financial loss), one often feels betrayed, concluding that God either doesn’t exist, doesn’t care, or isn’t powerful enough. The relationship is conditional and only lasts as long as the benefits keep flowing.
• Verse: “And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’” (Luke 12:15). Also refer to 1 Timothy 6:9-10 which warns of destructive desires.

Life For God – Activism and Burnout

This perspective focuses almost entirely on relentless religious activity, mission, and service. The person believes that their significance is found in their usefulness to God’s kingdom.

• Belief: My value is measured by my output and service. I must constantly be busy doing good works to be worthy of God’s love or attention.
• Behavior: Exhausting service and non-stop ministry. One avoids rest and reflection because they feel guilty about not working for God.
• Flaw: It turns the relationship into a task list and God’s mission into a crushing burden. It leads inevitably to burnout, exhaustion, and defining self-worth by accomplishment. In this view, if you stop producing, you stop being valuable.
• Verse: “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28-29) Refer to Romans 8:15 and Galatians 4:7 which declare us as no longer slaves, but children of God.

The True Posture of Love: Life With God

The shift to Life With God is the essence of true love and vulnerability. It means letting go of the constant need to control and perform, and instead, embracing the invitation to be with the Creator.

• Belief: God’s unconditional love is the foundation. My life is not about what I achieve for Him or what I can obtain from Him, but about Him. God is not a means; He is the goal.
• Behavior: Communion and presence. This posture embraces the mystery and the moment in the here and now. It involves walking in step with the Spirit, living without the intention to manipulate, and fully trusting that God is Immanuel—God with us—in the joy, the fear, the work, and the rest.
• Freedom: When we hold the posture of the child, not the cowering servant or the entitled heir, we can confidently walk into the throne room simply to enjoy the Father’s presence. It is a daily, vulnerable surrender that finds satisfaction in His presence, not in His presents or our performance.
• Verse: “When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs: heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:15–17). See also, Revelation 3:20.

The Power of Humility

“Humility appears nearly a hundred times in the Bible”^[2]. Humility calls us to an external vulnerability, the intentional removal of the “perfect image” we often try to project to the world and even to ourselves. Humility also calls us to an internal vulnerability, the intentional non-judgment of others and self-acceptance of our own continuous need for grace. This is a critical expression of love for God because it directly challenges the stance of pride, defined as “an unwarranted feeling of self-sufficiency, usually manifested by an arrogant bearing and a disregard of the worth of others.^[3]”

External Humility

When we work to convince others how good, competent, or spiritually mature we are, we are essentially testifying to our own sufficiency, not God’s. This act of self-justification or virtue signaling becomes a subtle lack of surrender. By acting like we have it together, we operate from a position of control, which inherently diminishes our dependance on God. We are hesitant to completely relinquish our sense of self-reliance to the boundless sufficiency of God.

If your image is ‘perfect’, where does God’s grace show up? Humility is the act of stepping back so that the goodness of God, rather than our own shaky virtue, becomes the sole testimony in our lives. Our weaknesses, when acknowledged, create space for His strength to be perfected, as Scripture attests (2 Cor 12:9). When we can openly declare, not our own achievement, but only the goodness of God—when our story is about His grace over our missing the mark—we offer the most authentic and powerful testimony to His reign in our life. This humility is a profound act of love because it gives all the honor, credit, and glory back to the Creator, where it belongs.

Internal Humility

Brennan Manning beautifully declares in The Ragamuffin Gospel that:

“The deeper we grow in the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the poorer we become — the more we realize that everything in life is a gift, the tenor of our lives becomes one of humble and joyful thanksgiving. Awareness of our poverty and ineptitude causes us to rejoice in the gift of being called out of darkness into wondrous light and translated into the Kingdom of God’s beloved Son.”[4]

When we fully adopt a posture of non-judgment and self-acceptance of our own continuous need for grace, we are able to live in a place of sincere gratitude as well as avoid the sin of condemning others. The warning, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged”, is a direct command against the pride that fuels external posturing. When we judge others, we are placing ourselves in a position of moral superiority, implying we have met a standard they have not.

“The spiritual future of ragamuffins consists not in disavowing that we are sinners but in accepting that truth with growing clarity, rejoicing in God’s incredible longing to rescue us in spite of everything.”[5]

Vulnerability requires we drop this self-appointed gavel, recognizing that we all stand on the same ground of need before God. “Judgment, when it is inevitable, must be charitable (ἀπολύετε), directed by a desire to acquit rather than to condemn.”^[6]

The scriptures offer severe warnings against judgment. The very nature of Satan is defined as the accuser (Job 1:6; Rev 12:10). When we choose to judge, condemn, or stand in self-proclaimed moral superiority over others, we are, in a very real sense, filling the role of the accuser—an act that is the antithesis of love. Love, as described in Scripture, “keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Cor 13:5), forgives seventy-seven times (Matt 18:21-22), whereas judgment is entirely predicated on keeping a detailed, damning record. Humility allows us to focus solely on the goodness of God and the grace that covers us all.

Greg Boyd summarizes this concept well in The Myth of a Christian Nation. When we assume the role of moral guardians of the culture, we invariably position ourselves as judges over others. Scripture explicitly forbids us to judge others, with Jesus contrasting love and judgment as antithetical activities – we cannot do both simultaneously. The fundamental human problem is attempting to know good and evil, when our true job is to love like God loves. We cannot effectively love while pretending to know what only God knows. As Paul and James emphasize, when we judge others, we are actually passing judgment on ourselves. There is only one true lawgiver and judge – God – so who are we to judge our neighbor?[7]

Prayer With God

People often treat prayer like a list we hand to a celestial Santa Claus or a genie we’re trying to coax into granting wishes. This transactional approach devalues the relationship, turning it into a mere means to an end. The purpose of prayer is not to force God’s hand, but to align our heart with His—to move away from treating prayer as a transactional to-do list and towards a posture of authentic resonance. As Mark Karris explores in his book, Divine Echoes: Reconciling Prayer With the Uncontrolling Love of God, this perspective transforms our relationship from one of distant manipulation to intimate partnership.

Rejecting the Genie/Transactional Model

Many people approach prayer with the presupposition that God needs to be convinced or that prayers must be accumulated to meet some divine quota before God will act. This turns prayer into a form of superstitious petitionary practice.

Karris emphasizes that we are not reminding a forgetful or unwilling God; rather, we are reminding ourselves. God’s desire for healing, justice, and wholeness (shalom) is already a “Yes, and Amen.”

The desire for love, peace, and healing that we long for is felt by God exponentially more so. We don’t need to beg God to love; we need to trust that He already does, constantly and uncontrollably. (Matt 7:11)

The Uncontrolling and Cooperative Love of God

God’s perfect love is uncontrolling/non-coercive. It’s not that God chooses not to control creatures and events, but that God cannot do so due to the very nature of love, which respects the free will of humanity and the natural laws of creation. We must wrestle with the nature of God’s power—seeing it not as unilaterally controlling and coercive, but as a wise and loving influence that preserves the sanctity of free will.

Because God does not unilaterally control, His work in the world often requires cooperation and mutual assistance from human beings. God seeks to accomplish goals, like justice and healing, through willing partners rather than by overriding natural laws or human free will.

Understanding this model of prayer provides a framework for understanding why prayers aren’t always answered the way we expect. Unanswered prayers are not necessarily due to a lack of faith but may be a result of the necessary freedom given to creation and the cooperation required to bring about change.

Shifting to Prayer With God

Karris proposes a model he calls “Conspiring Prayer.” This practice requires that we move beyond placing all the responsibility on God and take up our own moral responsibility.

Conspiring Prayer is a form of intimacy where we align our heart with God’s heart, creating a space where our spirit and God’s Spirit breathe harmoniously together. Instead of merely praying to God, we pray with God. It is plotting together to overcome evil with acts of love and goodness. God’s love is cooperative, meaning He requires our mutual assistance and collaboration to accomplish His goals in the world.

The resonance of our heart’s desire in prayer is often God whispering to our spirit, “I know—I want you to do that very thing.” Prayer then becomes the invitation for us to become God’s embodied hands and feet, increasing shalom in the world.

Greg Boyd in his book, Present Perfect, highlights the transformative power of being with God and creating prayers that align our hearts to God’s will. God is fully present right here and now, and the intimacy with God that people long for is available in the present moment. God’s redemptive love and activity are in every human interaction, and by remaining aware of God’s presence, one can improve the quality of relationships. While this practice is individually focused, when people yield to God’s Spirit, they become conduits of divine love, emulating Jesus’ compassion and breaking down oppressive barriers.[8]

Let your prayer, therefore, be less about a long list of requests and more about dialogue—a resonance of your authentic self in the presence of the One who already deeply desires your well-being.

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[1] Skye Jethani, With: Reimagining the Way You Relate to God (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2011).

^[2] Leland Ryken et al., Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 407.

^[3] Samuel Macauley Jackson, ed., The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (New York; London: Funk & Wagnalls, 1908–1914), 246.

[4] Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2000), 80.

[5] Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel: Good News for the Bedraggled, Beat-Up, and Burnt Out (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2000), 132.

^[6] Alfred Plummer, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Gospel according to S. Luke, International Critical Commentary (London: T&T Clark International, 1896), 189.

[7] Gregory A. Boyd, The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2023).

[8] Gregory A. Boyd, Present Perfect: Finding God in the Now (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2023).