Loving God With Everything
READ: Mark 12:30
So there Jesus was, walking through the temple courts of Jerusalem, when He was approached by the chief priests and elders. They start drilling him with all sorts of questions to try and refute any sort of authority He might have with the community. He gives them some parables (classic Jesus, right?!) to try to teach some deep, Kingdom-minded realities that would be hard to understand for their context.
Finally, they ask Jesus, “What is the greatest commandment?” to which He responds, “To love your neighbor as yourself and to love God with all of your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength”. To a religious-minded Pharisee, that was probably extremely surprising. Did Jesus really just say that love was the greatest commandment? Not the ones about keeping the sabbath holy? Not the other ones about adultery or taking the Lord’s name in vain?
Love. Love is the greatest commandment - not just love, but to love others, yourself, and God. Not only to love all of those entities, but to love others, yourself, and God with everything that you are: your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. Another way to phrase it would be to love like God loves you. God’s love encapsulates everything that He is, since according to 1 John, God IS love.
If we are going to love like God loves us, it’s going to take every part of us. I understand that it’s a lofty goal because we aren’t perfect, right? That’s the whole reason God is God and we are not. God is perfect in everything He does and is, and we are so far from that. Nonetheless, it’s still something to aspire to. In order for us to love like God, we must chase after health in every aspect of who we are emotionally, physically, and spiritually. I believe that this journey begins with understanding more of the Father’s love for us and how He loves us in every season, the good and the bad. He loves us no matter what because He’s the one that created us. He didn’t create us to follow rules and be religious. He created us to love and have relationship with Him.
Step 1: Understand more of the Father’s love for us.
Step 2: Lay everything we are, spiritually, emotionally, and physically, at His feet.
Romans 12:1 talks about presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - that is our true and proper worship. God wants all of us. All that we are and all that we have. Once we surrender all of ourselves to Him, He can then begin to work in us and transform our lives to look more like him. He’s not going to force His way into our lives. He is looking for offerings, not coercion or forced giving. So let’s let go of the parts of ourselves that we’ve been too ashamed to let God see. Let’s open up some of those closed doors that the Father has been knocking at for a while. He doesn’t want you to clean your house and then have Him over for dinner. He wants to help you clean your house while you eat dinner.
JOURNAL:
Ask God to speak to you and show you some things that He loves about you.
What are some things in your life that you might be too ashamed to let God see?
What’s it going to take to let Him into those areas of your life?
So there Jesus was, walking through the temple courts of Jerusalem, when He was approached by the chief priests and elders. They start drilling him with all sorts of questions to try and refute any sort of authority He might have with the community. He gives them some parables (classic Jesus, right?!) to try to teach some deep, Kingdom-minded realities that would be hard to understand for their context.
Finally, they ask Jesus, “What is the greatest commandment?” to which He responds, “To love your neighbor as yourself and to love God with all of your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength”. To a religious-minded Pharisee, that was probably extremely surprising. Did Jesus really just say that love was the greatest commandment? Not the ones about keeping the sabbath holy? Not the other ones about adultery or taking the Lord’s name in vain?
Love. Love is the greatest commandment - not just love, but to love others, yourself, and God. Not only to love all of those entities, but to love others, yourself, and God with everything that you are: your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. Another way to phrase it would be to love like God loves you. God’s love encapsulates everything that He is, since according to 1 John, God IS love.
If we are going to love like God loves us, it’s going to take every part of us. I understand that it’s a lofty goal because we aren’t perfect, right? That’s the whole reason God is God and we are not. God is perfect in everything He does and is, and we are so far from that. Nonetheless, it’s still something to aspire to. In order for us to love like God, we must chase after health in every aspect of who we are emotionally, physically, and spiritually. I believe that this journey begins with understanding more of the Father’s love for us and how He loves us in every season, the good and the bad. He loves us no matter what because He’s the one that created us. He didn’t create us to follow rules and be religious. He created us to love and have relationship with Him.
Step 1: Understand more of the Father’s love for us.
Step 2: Lay everything we are, spiritually, emotionally, and physically, at His feet.
Romans 12:1 talks about presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God - that is our true and proper worship. God wants all of us. All that we are and all that we have. Once we surrender all of ourselves to Him, He can then begin to work in us and transform our lives to look more like him. He’s not going to force His way into our lives. He is looking for offerings, not coercion or forced giving. So let’s let go of the parts of ourselves that we’ve been too ashamed to let God see. Let’s open up some of those closed doors that the Father has been knocking at for a while. He doesn’t want you to clean your house and then have Him over for dinner. He wants to help you clean your house while you eat dinner.
JOURNAL:
Ask God to speak to you and show you some things that He loves about you.
What are some things in your life that you might be too ashamed to let God see?
What’s it going to take to let Him into those areas of your life?
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