Jesus said to Him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind. This is the First and Great commandment.” — Matthew 22:37-38
I know a lot of us are familiar with this verse and probably memorized it. But i realized we’ve taken (at least i have..) it too easily and forgot about the weight and importance of it. So, i wanted to share what’s been pressing on my heart last couple of months..
It’s the First and the Greatest call in life. No other calling or dream is greater than this one. This is truly God’s first priority and the Spirit’s first emphasis (that we would cultivate love for God)
God wants us to love Him with all of our heart/mind because He loves us with all of His heart/mind! We are equally yoked in love.
In order to love God in this way, we Need God’s grace to do so. We need His supernatural empowerment to love Him. In order to receive that power, we need to intentionally make this our #1 pursuit in life.
It’s amazing how.. God (THE creator of the universe, who lacks none..) is searching for something that He still wants first. It is love that He is after! He is after our heart. Greatest evidence is seen in Jesus, of course. The Gospel. When we learn to respond to this love.. by cultivating our love for God: it has the greatest impact on God’s heart and our heart.
Therefore, it’s the size of our heart that matters.. not the size of our ministry or anything else. The greatest grace we can receive is the anointing to feel God’s love and express it. It brings the greatest freedom and has the greatest reward.
These are some practical ways to love God with heart/mind/strength/soul
- With heart, we are to engage our emotions in our love for God. Our emotions eventually follow whatever we set ourselves to pursue. Therefore, as we set our heart to love God, emotions or affections will follow in time. David says in Ps 18:1, “I WILL love You, o Lord, my strength.” He made a choice to set his heart to love God. We also need to keep our heart focused with diligence as it says in Prov 4:23.
- With mind, it’s all about “what are we filling our mind with?” Our mind doesn’t stop thinking, so it is extremely vital what we fill in there. What we do with our mind greatly affects our capacity to love. We must fill our mind with which inspires love for God instead of that which diminishes it. Our mind is very powerful, and we cannot handle it casually.. Let us fill it with the Word of God, so that we come into agreement with the truth about Him.
- With strength, we are to love God with our natural resources (time, money, energy, talents, words, and influence). God LOVES it when you give Him your strength! God cares about the love we show Him when we invest our strength into our relationship with Him and in helping others t love Him.. Parts of sermon on the mount is a good one to follow (Matthew 6:1-18).
- With soul, we realign our identity to be based on our relationship with God instead of on our accomplishments and the recognition we receive from people. Loving God with all that we have and being loved by God.. This intimate fellowship with the Lord IS what determines our success and personal worth.
This is it: I am loved by God and I am a lover of God, therefore I am successful!
So thankful for this truth, and hope you’re blessed by it.
