Love for God

During my years of teaching college students, I have found that students who do not have a living faith usually have a false view of what motivates Christians. They typically think that Christians do what they do (go to church, read the Bible and pray, do good deeds) because they are trying to earn a place in heaven. Generally they (particularly those who have never known a joyous Christian) have no idea that true saints do what they do because they are drawn by love. True Christians find that the love of God in Christ is so attractive, so beautiful, that they cannot help wanting to serve him. There is a splendor, a beauty, about God and his ways that lures human beings to him. The Bible says that this splendor is found principally in God's holiness. In other words, it is the excellence of God's moral character - the infinitely pure, self-giving love so vividly seen in Jesus - that makes him beautiful and elicits the worship of his creatures.

Gerald R. McDermott
Seeing God:
Twelve Reliable Signs of True Spirituality