In the Book of Mark 12:28, a Pharisee (teacher of religious law) asked Jesus, “which commandment was the most important”?
Jesus responded, ” The most important commandment is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength”.
Day in and day out, we make it a priority to love God by living for Him, walking in obedience and being faithful in all circumstances. But first we need to know what love truly is so that we can know how to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
Love God With All Your Heart
Love is a deep affection, adoration or devotion to someone that you truly care about. When you have this type of love, you will do anything for them. That is how we should be loving God. We love God with all of our heart because He first loved us (1 John 4:19).
The dictionary in my Tyndale NLT Bible defines love as, “the ultimate expression of God’s loyalty, purity and mercy extended toward His people”. He proved that love when He sent His son, Jesus, to become the Way back to Him, the Truth that set our souls free and Life that we can receive eternally.
When you love with all your heart, you put your all in it and make time for it. You create space for it. You’re focused on it, enjoy it, determined, devoted, committed, and look forward spending time with it. It is a top priority. It is a relationship with God. Love Him with all you have because he first loved you.
Love God With All Your Soul
What is the soul?
According to Webster Dictionary, the definition of a soul is the moral and emotional nature of human beings. The Collins Dictionary states: Your soul is the part of you that consists of your mind, character, thoughts and feelings.
Through your mind, character, thoughts and feelings, you express who you are, things you like or love, things you treasure or desire and you also express your top priorities.
An important question to ask yourself is, “is God in any of those“? Do you love Him? Do you treasure Him? Do you desire a close relationship with Him? Do you make Him your top priority in day to day living? Or do you only prioritize Him based on what you are going through?
I get it. Busyness, distractions and life period is a whole lot. Trust me, this post is not only for you, but also for me.
At one point, I was so devoted faithfully and truly loved God with all my soul. I went throughout the day with Him and looked forward to doing everything for Him and with Him that He called me to do. Praying in my closet and wanting to read the Bible rather than watch TV was something I treasured. Then…..distractions came. Procrastinations came. Laziness came. All of those things came from Satan. But the good news is….Jesus is the embodiment of grace. “God blesses those that realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is given to them” (Matthew 5:3). Even when the mind is distracted, our soul longs for Jesus.
Loving God with all your soul is doing what is right even when you don’t feel like it or want to, but you still press forward because of who He is and what He has done.
Love God With All Your Mind
Simply put, your mind is a battlefield.
The first two scriptures that popped in my mind when writing for this section were Romans 12:2 and Philippians 4:8.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will. - Romans 12:2 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. - Philippians 4:8
Since we know that our mind is a battlefield, we can and should ask God to renew our minds daily.
Oxford dictionary defines the word “renew” as the following: resume (activity) after an interruption.
We are interrupted daily with distractions. We have to-do lists and worries. We have doubts at home, work and just in life period. Some of our minds are stuck in the past while some are too much in the future.
So, each day we can ask God to renew our mindset to glorify him because we start living by what we think, and there is no way that we can love God with all of our mind if our minds are not rooted in Him and for Him.
Love God With All Your Strength
In Colossians 3:23, Apostle Paul says, “whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.
At times we may can’t be effective doers in our own strength, but we can rely on the strength of God to get the work done.
A few synonyms of strength are courage, firmness, health, power, stability, vitality, influence, and anchor.
My God exemplify all of these synonyms of Strength, so when you cannot find the energy or your health is not up to par or you don’t have the power and influence to reach many people, you can still love Him with all your strength by grabbing firm to the Word of God, be anchored by Jesus and do all what God is calling you to do with a courageous Spirit.
When I am weak, then I am strong and I am aware that without Him I cannot effectively do for the Kingdom of God.
You can start choosing to love God today. His Salvation is not only for me but also you too. His love is not only for me but you too. His grace is not only for me but you too. His mercy, peace and promises are not only for me but you too.
Let’s choose Love because Love first chose us.
Thank you for reading, Monique ST
P.S. Comment down below to share ways that you have shown God you love Him or share your thoughts!
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