This is What it is to Be Loved

Why is God a jealous God? I was thinking about this today. Why does He demand such devotion? I have come to the conclusion that it is because He demands it of Himself as well.
He says, “Love Me with all your heart because I love you with all of Mine.”
Think about it with me for a second. God desires all of you; He wants you to treasure nothing as much as you do Him because that's what He does with you. Every piece of Him is yours and nothing, absolutely nothing is of more value than your soul.
In fact His love was so undistracted that He willingly paid the very expensive price for your heart-His only Son. The greatest sacrifice a father will ever have to make He made for you and me.
So when God commands us to “Have no other gods before Him” (Exodus 20:3) it is not only because He alone is God but also because He lets nothing come between Himself and you. He does not command what He is not willing to also do Himself.
It completely changes things when Christianity stops being just a religion and instead begins to be viewed as a relationship. To break laws is one thing to break God's heart something totally different. It becomes more personal to say the least.
I think it is hard for us to accept God’s love because to truly accept it is to be radically changed. His love strips us of our phony clothing, knocks down our carefully stacked brick walls and crashes through our barricaded door. We dislike being vulnerable, baring our souls like that-it’s uncomfortable. We’d rather pretend He doesn’t exist or study all the theologically correct answers than actually think about a relationship with Him. It’s easier that way. I know it is for me.
However, in order to understand God’s love we really have to give up all our false ideas of love. This world is full of ideas but there is so little actual truth. We have to realize that God’s love is in a completely different category than any other love we have heard about or known. It is true that God’s love is like a Father and is like a groom but even these are not identical representations. God’s love is different, there is nothing quite like it in the entire world. We can only draw stick figures of the love of God because until we are wise (and we are all foolish in our own ways) we can’t understand it. Like David said, “Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.” (Psalm 139:6)
Our primary thought should be to simply enjoy His love: To know that He gives us permission to be happy, to play and bask in His endless, measureless love.
When we let ourselves love God and be loved by Him, everything else falls into place. Love as small as the word is truly is the core, the foundation of everything. It comes first. If you leave out this four letter word your entire Christian world falls apart.
So love with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and know that God loves you with all His heart, with all His soul, with all His mind and with all His strength. All of Him is yours, so let all of you be His.