How Do We Love God With Everything We Have Got?
Good Morning Friends,
Today we ask what may be the most important question we will ever be asked to answer. It is beautifully unique to each of us and uniformly simple. Answering the question helps us to discover, if we are honest, our purpose, for we must evaluate what we have to give. The rules are set out in the first five of the Ten Commandments. But there is more…so much more. So, the question I am asking of us today is….. How Do We Love God With Everything We Have Got?
Scripture: Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us.
Ephesians 5:1-2 (NRSV)
One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 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.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’–this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.
Mark 12:28-34 (NRSV)
He answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”
Luke 10:27 (NRSV)
Message: People generally have trouble loving God. Jesus said we need to do four things to love God completely. Let’s break this down as Jesus did. It starts with the desire of the heart. Here we have to face the reality that the deep currents of our emotions steer our lives. We are captivated by all sorts of activities in seeking fulfillment. So, discern what occupies our time. Determine what it is that motives our actions. Understand what we truly value and treasure. Now aim to make Jesus the treasure of our lives. Value God. Spend time with God. Realize that to love God with our souls has to do with being devoted and faithful in lifestyle and behavior. This is about making godly choices. We are to be obedient to the Spirit, Word and Truth. We are to live humbly because we are all sinners. To love God with all of our mind ultimately requires us to think supernaturally. We are to reason. We are to seek knowledge. We are to remember the past and triumph over it in Christ’s truth. But then we are to fix our imagination on what is honorable and right with a love that releases us to the possibilities of living in faith, creating something outside the box. Now loving God with all our strength is counterintuitive. Here to allow the power of the universe to flow through us we have to admit we are weak. Friends, spend some time today learning to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Discover for yourself what it means to love God and love others by giving it everything you have got. Learn that loving God and loving others cannot be separated. Friends, Jesus shows us a pathway for our busy lives. He shows us the true essentials for life’s journey. And through this instruction I believe He intends for us to experience the sacrament of the grace of Jesus Christ himself made manifest in His very presence when we learn to submit to love. In this singularity, the busyness ends and everything creatively fits together powered by love. We can live less frantically…more filled with the love of His Spirit as we commit our lives to one another. Here we find an abiding power that helps us to love our neighbors and that blesses us and glorifies God.
Pray that we focus our lives on seeking God…in loving God…in being the Body of Christ together. Pray we pursue God with a renewed mind. Pray we read scripture. Pray we grow and adjust. Pray we delight in the Lord. Pray our affection for God is captured in the choices we make. Pray we pursue a life that honors God in our attitudes and speech. Pray we reach with a creative mind to connect with something that glorifies God. Pray that God loves us and that God’s strength flows though us. Pray we realize that loving God cannot be separated from loving ourselves and our neighbors. Pray we love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Pray we realize that we serve a loving God. Pray we abide in the love of God to the Glory of God as we love with all the generosity we have got. Pray we realize that in loving God we can enjoy God’s sustaining favor. Pray we love God with our passions, hungers, perceptions, and thoughts. Pray we hear Jesus’ call for us to have a wholehearted, life-encompassing, community-impacting, focused and unified commitment to God.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 