Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire [this] love [make it your aim, your great quest]; and earnestly desire and cultivate the spiritual endowments (gifts), especially that you may prophesy (interpret the divine will and purpose in inspired preaching and teaching). 1 Corinthians 14:1, Amplified Bible (AMP)

In 1 Corinthians 14, God, through Paul, admonishes us to seek out and to acquire the characteristics of love described in chapter 13 . When God, through Paul, does this, He is admonishing us to become more like Himself, for God, as 1 John 4:8 teaches us, is love. 1 John 4:8 also teaches us that in order to be filled with love, we must be well acquainted with God in the first place. Therefore, in order to acquire love, we must be willing to seek out a deep, rich relationship with God. How do we do this? First, we must trust Christ as our Savior, for our relationship with Him can only begin once we first acknowledge his Lordship over our lives and souls. Secondly, we must build upon the foundation of salvation by spending time in fellowship with our Lord.

In nearly 20 years of marriage, I’ve learned a simple truth: the more time I spend with my wife, the more I grow to know her and to love her. A big reason that our relationship has gotten better and not worse during our marriage is that we have spent countless hours conversing together, sharing life’s joys together, and dealing with life’s struggles together. We are best friends, and we are best friends only because we have chosen to and committed to walking through life together hand in hand. If we want to acquire the love of God, we must seek to build a similarly deep, loving relationship with God by choosing to and by committing to walking hand in hand through life with Him. This means we have to be in constant communication with Him, through both prayer and Bible reading/study, during the ups and downs of life. We can’t acquire a relationship with God by giving Him a cursory, half-hearted nod one or two times a week, one or two times a month, or one or two times a year. We forge real relationships with anybody by spending quality AND quantity time together, and building our relationship with God is no different.

How can you tell the status of your relationship with God? First of all, your character will resemble the character described in 1 Corinthians 13. Secondly, you’ll find yourself having much less trouble figuring out God’s will for your life. As 1 Corinthians 14:1 indicates, acquiring the love of God brings with it a greater ability to discern the will and purposes of God. Obviously, we will never know everything God knows. However, the more we love Him, the more we think like Him, and the easier it will be for us to hear His voice when He tells us to do something.