First of all, we would like to state that the strength of love for the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) is connected to the Muslim’s faith. When his faith increases, his love for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) increases. Loving the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is an act of obedience to Allah and a means of drawing closer to Him. Loving the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is one of the obligatory duties in Islam.
It was narrated that Anas said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “None of you truly believes until I am more beloved to him than his father, his child and all the people.” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim)
Focusing more on your question, we cite the following:

Love for the Prophet Is a Condition of Faith
Love for the Prophet Muhammad is a measure of one’s faith and inner conviction, and our faith is completed and perfected only when our love for the Prophet exceeds our love for everything else in this world, including our own lives. The Holy Qur’an says: (The Prophet is preferable for the believers even to their own selves…) (Al-Ahzab 33: 6)
this is a definitional sentence that tells us what it takes to be a believer: preferring the Prophet even to one’s own life. In confirmation of this, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) is reported in a Hadith to have said: “None of you truly believes until I am more beloved to him than his father, his child and all the people.” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim) Some versions add: “his life, his wealth and his family.”
the best of believers, the Companions of the Prophet, especially the noblest of them, did show such love for the Prophet. `Ali ibn Abi Talib, speaking on behalf of all the community of the Companions in Madinah, is reported to have said: “The Holy Prophet is dearer to us than our wealth, our children, our fathers, our forefathers, our mothers and cool water at the time of severe thirst.”
Love of the Prophet breathes life into our practice of religion. Without it our religion reduces to an empty adherence to a set of dead rules and rituals.
The Meaning of This Love for the Prophet

At one level it seems clear why the faithful should love the Prophet: he is their teacher, guide and leader, and it is impossible for him to teach, guide and lead them if they don’t love him. But there is a deeper meaning in the principle that love for the Prophet is essential for faith.

Love for the Prophet is love of all the beauty and nobility of character, truthfulness, justice, humility and inner strength of which mankind is capable and which the Prophet as the perfect person possessed to the utmost degree.
Love for the Prophet means to acknowledge, cherish and glorify all the potential of goodness and greatness that Allah has created within mankind.
It also means love of humanity, not just in regard to its potential for perfection but also despite its general inability to realize that potential and despite all kind of imperfections and weaknesses from which it suffers. For the Prophet is not only the Perfect Person but also the Representative Person who on the Day of Judgment will represent mankind and plead on its behalf for its imperfections and weaknesses before the throne of Allah.

Thus, love for the Prophet, on the one hand, puts us on the road to perfection by making us cherish it dearly and, on the other hand, it helps us accept our imperfect humanity and in this way to live in peace with ourselves as repentant servants of Allah hopeful of His mercy. This is why love for the Prophet is a condition of faith, for what is faith if it is not to acknowledge and repent for one’s imperfections and weaknesses and to cherish and strive for—even as an unachievable ideal—the perfection that mankind is potentially capable of?
The love for the Prophet represents the human side of faith. As a human, the Prophet represents a believer’s own true self. His love for the Prophet means that he has recognized his own true self and is at peace with himself, which in turn means that he has recognized his Lord and made peace with Him by surrendering to Him.

For more information on how we increase our love for the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), we cite the following fatwa issued by Sheikh M. S. Al-Munajjid, a prominent Saudi Muslim lecturer and author, in which he states: You can increase your love for the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) by realizing the following:

First, he was sent by his Lord, Who chose him above all of creation to convey the religion of Allah to mankind. Allah chose him because He loved him and was pleased with him. If Allah had not been pleased with him, He would not have chosen him. So we must love the one whom Allah loves and be pleased with the one with whom Allah is pleased. We must realize that he is the close friend (khalil) of Allah and that close friendship is a higher status and it is the highest degree of love.
It was narrated that Jundub said: I heard the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) say: “I declare before Allah that I have no close friend (khalil) from among you. Allah has taken me as a close friend as he took Ibrahim as a close friend. If I were to have taken a close friend from among my ummah, I would have taken Abu Bakr as a close friend.” (Muslim).
Second, we should realize the high status to which Allah has raised him, for he (peace and blessings be upon him) is the best of mankind.
It was narrated that Abu Hurairah said: The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “I will be the leader of mankind of the Day of Resurrection, the first whose grave will be opened, the first to intercede, and the first to be asked to intercede.” (Muslim)
Third, we should realize that he suffered trials and difficulties in order to bring Islam to us. We should remember that the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was persecuted, hit, slandered and insulted; the closest people to him disowned him and accused him of being a madman, a liar and a sorcerer. He fought the people in order to protect the religion so that it could reach us; they fought him, expelled him from his people and homeland, and gathered armies against him.
Fourth, we should follow the example of his Companions who loved him deeply. They loved him more than wealth and sons, and more than their own selves. There follow some examples of that:
It was narrated that Anas said: I saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) when the barber was cutting his hair and his Companions were going around him wanting to ensure that his hair would fall only into someone’s hand. (Muslim)
It was narrated that Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: On the Day of Uhud, some of the people fled and left the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), but Abu Talhah stood before him covering him with a shield. Abu Talhah was a powerful archer who broke two or three bows that day. When a man passed by carrying a quiver containing arrows, he would say, “Give them to Abu Talhah.” Whenever the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) raised his head to look at the people, Abu Talhah would say, “O Prophet of Allah, may my father and my mother be sacrificed for you, do not raise your head lest you be struck by an arrow shot by the enemy. My neck is before your neck.” (Al-Bukhari and Muslim)
Fifth, you should follow his Sunnah in word and deed, so that his Sunnah is the path you follow in your whole life, and you put his words before any other words and put his command before everything else. And you should follow the `aqeedah (belief) of his noble Companions, and the `aqeedah of the tabi`un (successors) who followed them, and the `aqidah of those who followed their path until the present day, namely Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama`ah, and avoid bid`ah (innovation), especially the Rafidis (Shi`ah), for their hearts are hardened against the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and they give their imams precedence over him and love them more than they love him.
We ask Allah to help us to love His Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) and to make him dearer to us than our children, parents, families and our own selves.