on loving God

I went to Starbucks today and sat down intending to work on a book I've been writing, but all of a sudden I just wrote on the paper, for no apparent reason, "What does it mean to love God?" And I stared at it and I thought, "Hardly anyone knows." Of course, that's not the case. But in western society, the concept of "loving God" falls quite far from what Jesus actually meant. So I've been hammering out an essay (at six pages now) on what it means to love God and what it means to love people (since the two are intricately connected). Basically the first part of the essay (which I'm almost done with) is about how loving God is NOT about having positive feelings towards Him; there are many in the biblical testimony--i.e. David, Jeremiah, Job--who experienced negative feelings towards God but still loved Him. And there are countless many who have "warm" feelings towards God but who do not love Him. I believe that loving God is equivalent to being dedicated/devoted/committed/loyal to Him, and this is manifested in obedience. And in a Christian culture where people shout from the rooftops "I love God!" I wonder how many people actually sit down, examine their lives, and ask themselves if they're being honest in their proclamations. And I wonder how many preachers who talk about "loving God" really define for people what that means.