Mark 12:28-30, One of the teachers of religious law was
standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered
well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The
Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with
all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’”
What does this mean for us today? How do we love the Lord with all of our
being?
1. We need to begin by acknowledging that without Christ we
are lost, without hope.
Acts 4:12 “There is salvation in no one
else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
1 Thessalonians 1:7b-9 “He will come with
his mighty angels, in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those who don’t know
God and on those who refuse to obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus. They will
be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from
his glorious power."
2. We need to think about why we chose to love Jesus to
begin with.
1 John 4:19 (KJV) “We love him, because he first loved us.”
Romans 5:8 “But God showed his great love for us by sending
Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
3. We need to recount for
ourselves the blessings God has given us.
a. Salvation e.
Health
b. Family f. Peace
c. Friends g. Provision
d. Life h.
Joy
These are but a few of the things most
of us could list. In your list you can
be more specific, naming family members, friends, etc.
Psalm 103:2 “Let all that I am praise
the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me.”
Psalm 107:43 “Those who are wise will
take all this to heart; they will see in our history the faithful love of the
Lord.”
4. We must love the Lord with every area of our life. Mark 12:30 “And you must love the Lord your
God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.”
a.
With all
our hearts (our emotions): God created us to be emotional beings. Jesus demonstrated great emotion when he wept
at the tomb of Lazarus. Our emotions lead us to make choices every day. These choices can be for good or not. While Jesus felt strong emotions, he never
allowed them to lead him to sin. We must
yield our emotions to the Lord and allow him to work through them a greater
good in our lives than we could work on our own. His desire is for us to be emotionally healthy. Being emotionally healthy involves handling
our emotions as they require without extremes and without sin.
For example, anger is a God-given emotion. The Word admonishes us: Ephesians 4:26 “And
‘don’t sin by letting anger control you.’
Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry.” Herein is the key to being emotionally
healthy; not allowing our emotions to control us.
b.
With all
our souls (our understanding): Our relationship with Christ cannot be based
solely on emotions because emotions change.
Our relationship must be built on our understanding of who God is and on
the trust we have placed in him. Romans
15:13 “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy
and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope
through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
c. With all
our mind (our thoughts): Philippians 4:8 “And now, dear brothers and
sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and
right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are
excellent and worthy of praise.”
As
a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will
not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and
again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of
thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
~Henry David Thoreau
What
are we allowing to dominate our thoughts?
What kind of pathway is being created in our mind? Are we obeying Philippians 4:8? Or have we
allowed ourselves to focus on things of this world? Colossians 3:24 “Set your minds on things above,
not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in
God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him
in glory.”
d. With all
our strength (our physical abilities): We are instructed in the Word to do
everything we do as if we were doing it directly for Christ. When we do everything to bring glory to
Christ we are loving him with all our strength.
Ecclesiastes
9:10a (NIV) “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might.”
Colossians 3:23 “Work willingly at
whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for
people.”
Whether we have been a believer for a
few months or many years we can always do with a bit of rekindling in our love
for him!
All Scripture is NLT unless otherwise stated.
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