Tag Archives: Love God with all your heart

Love is all

Leave a reply

 

Love God with all your heart, mind, body and soul and with all your strength.  Love your neighbor as yourself.              – Mark 12:30-31

Let us love one another for love comes from God. – 1 John 4:7

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. – Matthew 5:16

 

Jesus makes sure we make no mistake. Our love for God is to be marked by ALL our heart, ALL our mind, ALL our soul, and ALL our strength. Basically, we are to love with everything that is in us. He doesn’t allow room for ‘SOME’ of anything. Loving God and loving others is our job description. Everything else is what HR people call “nonessential duties”…leftovers.

 

But what if ‘all’ God gets is our leftovers? Leftover after we give service to our other ‘gods.’ Anything that separates us from the one true God becomes a ‘god’ to us. Probably you know those who gave up on God because they lost a loved one, their health took a turn for the worst, they were betrayed by someone close to them, they felt unprotected. Maybe you experienced this at one time too. When this happens God is ignored and set aside, like last night’s leftovers, and lesser ‘gods’ are pursued.

 

Think you are immune to such idolatry? If you could not do without something, that may have become your ‘god.’ Be it sports, the pursuit of beauty and ultimate fitness above all things, that perfect latte, a certain way of negative thinking, or any other compulsive or perfectionist venture. When we obey these things they define and control our life and become as ‘gods.’ We can’t give ALL to the one and only true God, because all that remains is leftovers.

 

The question is: What do I HAVE to have in order to be satisfied with God? Whatever that is, my health, my family, my abilities, more years of life, more money, a pain-free life…that is the name of our other ‘god.’ The point of Job’s story is that God is enough. Like ending Psalm 23 with the first sentence, the Lord is my shepherd; that is enough.

 

God created us with a soul designed to love Him and be loved by Him. Love comes from God because God IS love. God demonstrated His love in this: while we were still sinners Christ died for us. It is His love that shines in us. That light shines into the despair of our dark griefs and empty pursuits. It reveals hope that brings transcending joy and peace. It illuminates our path and causes fear to flee. It frees us from the captivity of all our false gods.

 

When the love of Jesus shines in and through you, you find freedom to love without expectation. Jesus says, we shine our light so others may see the real Jesus and praise God. Loving God with ALL your heart, mind, soul, and strength extends His endless love to others. Let’s give Him our ALL, not just leftovers.

 

 

When it is NOT good to share

Leave a reply

We recently had all the grandchildren here to pick apples. Afterward, they had fun playing with the toys we keep for them here. As expected, a certain toy would go unnoticed until one grandchild picked it up. Then, another child would suddenly realize that particular toy was JUST what they needed to play with at the time. And thus began another lesson on sharing.

As adults, the Bible reminds us also to consider the needs of others and share our blessings; we are after all, blessed in order to bless. We are called not only to share in physical tangible ways, but also in the time, energy, focus, and priority we place on others. And it’s a calling that ends up blessing US in return!

But there is another kind of sharing that actually bears disastrous results for us. And that is sharing our affections for God with other entities (“idols”). Loving God a little but loving other things more is one form of worshiping idols. God warns us that we should have only one God and not bow down to other ‘gods.’ Jesus summarizes everything we need to do by calling us to love God with ALL our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love others as He loves us. Our loving gracious God is also a Holy and just God. His wonderful plan for us is not to participate in some kind of time-share. He wants us to have ALL of Him, and we need Him to have ALL of us.

Imagine newly weds gazing into each other’s eyes, repeating words of commitment and devotion to each other, saying, “I will always and forever love only you. There will never be another who claims my affection or attention…except maybe football, or my career ambitions, or when I want to watch certain movies that dishonor you, or I have to have my own way, or I want to complain about you to others, or if I feel unloved, or …” (the list goes on.) Our desires and our actions must match our words if we are to bring honor to each other.

It is the same way with our relationship with God. We can’t simply bring words of praise on Sundays and then allow other ‘competitors’ to spoil our daily relationship with Him. If we want all his blessing we need to bring Him a heart that is satisfied with him more than anything else. There we find, and give, honor that is due, and honor that brings mutual joy.

Sharing blessings and truth and grace is good, but not letting other desires compete with our love for God. What other ‘gods’ need disowning in your life? Today is a great day to tell God about them and ask to help you remove them.

“I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols.” Isaiah 42:8