Is God Forcing Us To Love Him?

Sometimes doesn’t it feel like God’s forcing us to love Him, to obey Him? “Don’t eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil or you will die.” — Thus says the Lord. Why even put it within our reach, to begin with? And what kind of choice is that?

We either do the right thing, by denying ourselves and trusting the Lord, or we ruin everything, by going against the advice of our maker.

Is God evil or He simply wanted to show us how dumb and self-destructive we are? Because if the threat of death didn’t stop us from sinning, what will? Maybe, I don’t know… maybe the threat of eternal punishment? Yes, that definitely, 100% will work… But, no, that didn’t work either. Since we want what we want and are willing to pay any price to get it.

And even though we know what the outcome will be, we want to experience our desire first and then, only then after getting what we want, start seeing the downsides of it, being bored with it, then finally we wish to repent and take it back.

How many marriages have been broken because someone cheated? How many babies either don’t have one of the parents in their lives or have been given up for adoption or worse, abortion, because people didn’t want to wait till marriage?

Sin, immoral behavior, and disobedience to God occur and death follows. The death of a relationship, the death of a human life, the death of our sense of justice, of what’s right and wrong. And once you break one law, you’ll break another and another.

God is not forcing us to love Him, He’s showing us why we should.

What it would be like if every time we sinned, we got electrocuted? We definitely wouldn’t do it. But that wouldn’t be not sinning. That would be every time we want to practice sin something bad happens, which would take the pleasure out of it. It’s more about self-preservation than actually making the right choice. Therefore, our character could not be judged.

What it would be like if we couldn’t sin? That’s what apparently is going to happen in heaven. Is that considered brainwashing or cleansing of the soul? Because we only know what’s evil because of Adam and Eve.

And for those who criticize heaven because you think God will brainwash us, think like this: when you’re under the influence of a substance and you do something you never would do sober, doesn’t mean the substance made you do it. The substance only removed the inhibitions of your controlled self. When you’re in heaven you’ll be under the influence of the substance of the holy spirit, but you’ll still be you.

And right now, even though you’re sober, you’re under the influence of the substance of your earthly body, your past experiences, your environment, your emotions. Who are full of sin on the land owned by Lucifer.

God doesn’t force us to do anything. Our response to our current situation does. So, it always has been, and it always will be on us.

Loving God is hard, boring, frustrating, painful, lonely, restrictive. We don’t know what’s going to happen when it’s going to happen. We have to endure damage without damaging ourselves and others.

We try to curse God, but then we regret it because, deep down, we know it’s all for good. Making us realize how truly small we are and how much we don’t know. And loving God it’s about accepting that fact.

It’s hard to love God when we’re not perfect. And if we can’t be perfect, can God love us?

He already said He does, and it doesn’t matter what we think. All we can do is try and try again. Never take our salvation for granted and hope that on judgment day Jesus will welcome us.

Is God forcing us to love Him because of the consequences? Love and follow Him, we go to heaven. Otherwise, hell.

What world do we live in that there’s no positive or negative outcome to our decisions? Every decision we make affects those around us. And even if we only affect ourselves, this is not our body. God made us and only He knows what we deserve, whether we like it or not.

Ask yourself: when you work, is it because someone’s forcing you or is it because you don’t want to be without money? You can live without money, but it’s not the life that you want.

When God asks you to love Him above everything else, is He forcing you or He doesn’t want you to be apart from Him? Because when you are, you’re apart from everything that’s truly good.

Therefore, God is not forcing us to love Him, He’s showing us why we should.