Loving God
Following Jesus precedes believing in Jesus.
Often when speaking about what it means to love God, we talk about our faith or belief in Jesus. The fascinating thing is that this is not where Jesus starts. At the beginning of his ministry, we do not see Jesus walking along the beach and inviting Peter, Andrew, James and John to, "believe in me". Instead, Jesus' initial invitation is "Come, follow me". (Mark 4:18-22).
What does it mean to follow Jesus?
In Eugene Peterson's book, 'The Jesus Way' he writes:
"To follow Jesus implies that we enter into a way of life that is given character and shape and direction by the one who calls us. To follow Jesus means picking up rhythms and ways of doing things that are often unsaid but always derivative from Jesus, formed by the influence of Jesus. To follow Jesus means that we can't separate what Jesus is saying from what Jesus is doing and the way he is doing it. To follow Jesus is as much, or maybe even more, about feet as it is about ears and eyes"