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Tuesday
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 strength.
- Deuteronomy 6:4-5
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them
debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the
most important?” “The most
important one,” answered Jesus,
“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.’ - Mark 12:28-30
God wants us to have a passion for Him. He has a passion
for us! For some people, they just
don’t seem to get passionate about much of anything. What are you passionate about? Is it your iphone, or your ipad? Your children? Your favorite sports team? Running marathons? You can tell what a person is truly
passionate about simply by the amount of time and energy they spend just
thinking and talking about it. If
you are passionate about something, you don’t have to stop and remember to
think about it, because you are nearly always thinking about it.
A.W. Tozer said, “We are called to an everlasting
preoccupation with God.”
In the passage from Mark, Jesus quotes the Shema
(Deut. 6:4-5) in order to answer the question, which commandment is the
greatest? It is the commandment to
love God. Does it strike you as a
little strange that we are commanded to love God? How can you command someone to love you? I don’t think it would work too well in
a marriage relationship if one spouse said to the other, “I command you to love
me”. Isn’t love more of a
feeling? How can you command
someone to feel a certain way?
Actually, in the Bible, love is much more closely connected to our will
and our actions than it is to our feelings or emotions.
The love of God is not some mystical thing. Nor is it just having warm
feelings about God. Jesus and John
make this quite clear over and over again…
“If you love me, you will obey what I command. – John 14:15
Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the
one who loves me.
– John 14:21
This is love for God: to obey his commands. And
his commands are not burdensome - 1 John 5:3
This concept of love being connected to obedience and
actions more than just feelings helps us understand how God can command us to
love Him. Notice that we are told
to love God with all of our heart, soul and strength (Jesus adds that we are to love God with our minds in Mark
12).
The words used for heart and soul in Hebrew are a little
difficult to distinguish at times, and they often seem to have overlapping
meanings, but when we examine each word and then put them together, we get a
picture of a person who is completely consumed with love for God.
Heart –
(Heb) lebab – inner person, will,
motivational center of your life
Soul –
(Heb) nephesh – spirit, desire,
passion, that which gives you life
Strength –
(Heb) ma’od – force, might, displayed in external actions
Mind – (Gk) dianoia - faculty of understanding, thoughtful discernment
Can you see how these things all fit together? If you are loving God with your mind,
you will be focusing your thoughts on who He is; His faithfulness, His
compassion, His forgiveness, His justice, His power and authority. If you are growing in your
understanding of who God is, you will inevitably desire to live your life in
obedience to Him. If you desire to
live in obedience to God, your external actions will begin to change. When your external actions change, you
will experience the joy and freedom of obedience. When you experience the joy of obedience, you will desire to
know Him more (and on it goes).
You don’t grow in love for God by waiting around until you
“feel” loving towards Him. You
grow in love for God by taking action!
Get out your Bible and start reading! Get to know Him through His Word. Obey His Word!
Start taking steps to align your attitudes and choices according to the
principles and commands God has given you. Get on your knees!
Start praying and asking God to help you love Him with your heart, soul,
mind and strength.
Jeff Frazier
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