“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
February 23, 2023
“He’s got soul.” “Soul brother,” “soul food,” “soul music,” “soul mate,” “soul searching.” We get something of the biblical word for soul in our use of the word to speak of those things that drive us, energize us, fulfill us. Jesus quotes Israel’s “Shema” (Deut. 6:4-9) which was recited twice daily in Judaism. Four different terms are used to describe how much God is to be loved. These are not merely different words without a distinction. Love is knowing what God expects us to do, and doing it. To love God with all our soul (nefesh in the Hebrew, Psyche in the Greek) communicates affection involving all our desires. Love for God is to involve my desire to do things for God’s glory. It is my desire to get things in getting more of God. My desire for security can only be fulfilled in God. We don’t have a soul. We are a soul which is the animation of my entire person yearning for God. Does my daily living exude a thirst for God (Psa. 42:1,2)? Only God can meet our deepest needs. What desires are ruling me? Is it another person who has control over you?
H
“O Lord, I know there is no other God besides you. Help me to see those disordered loves that are hijacking my soul from craving for your approval above all else.”