“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Mark 12:30
August 9, 2024
Our word “love” really takes a beating. We love tacos. We love our dog. We love our spouse. Is there not a difference in what it means to love God? God is to be loved with a determined and dominating love (“all our heart”). The heart is the home of our willing and longing. It involves compelling emotions. Am I loving God by making decisions which acknowledge His supremacy? God is to be loved by taking pleasure in Him to the full extent of my life (“all my soul”). We are talking intensity. Am I loving God by putting my whole being into it? God is to be loved with the full exertion of my thought life (“with all my mind”). Am I growing in my ability to fill my thoughts with what God says is true? God is to be loved with every ounce of my physical strength. Am I harnessing my energy to discipline myself in the pursuit of knowing God?
H
“Dear God, teach me what it is to use my eyes, ears, feet, hands, time and energy to obey you. I long for you to be at the very center of my being.”