08 August 2013

With All My Heart/Strength

 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Deuteronomy 6:5

What does it mean to me to love God with ALL my heart, soul, and strength?

One day, Jesus was asked, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" and Jesus answered, "What does the Law say? How do you read it?" The man answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Luke 10:25-37 for this scene)

The key phrase Jesus ask is "How do you read it?" Jesus is a teacher! A good teacher ask questions that make us think.  If you notice, Jesus didn't say to "love God with all your mind" the man said it!  The man read between the lines and realized he had to love God with even his thoughts! 

Love the Lord with all my heart, all my soul, all my strength: How do I read that?  What does it mean to me?

1) It means I must make a daily choice to live surrendered to God's will. The heart is the well spring of life!  My mouth will utter my heart's desires. In order for my life to point to God, He has to have FULL occupancy of my heart.  He has to occupy my every corner and crevice of my heart.

2) It means I must daily yield full control of my will.  The soul is the very essence of what I am.  My passions, desires, dreams, thoughts.  I must give Him all of that! My passions traded in for His passions. My desires traded in for His desires. My dreams traded in for His plans. My thoughts focused on Him and not me.

3)  It means I must make a priority change.  Where does my strength come from? My strength comes from the Lord ... OR does it?  To me, strength has a double role here.  There is PHYSICAL strength and there is SPIRITUAL strength.
   *Physical. I have struggled long with my weight.  In March 2012, I weighed 265 pounds.  In November of 2012, I weighed 215 pounds.  I NOW weigh 245 pounds.  In Dec 2012, I took on a night job.  The kids father had stopped paying child support in August 2012.  I needed a part time job to go with day job.  Going from 430 am till 10:30 pm is a LONG day. I started munching again. I was more tired and physically stressed.  Once Spring 2013 came along, I paid off credit card debt with the income tax return! I FELT so FREE! That's when the night job felt like a HUGE burden.  What made me realize I needed to quit the night job as soon as possible is when I failed to read my son's black belt testing schedule right.  I was tired. I was worn out. The brain was no longer functioning.  I've been off my night job for almost two weeks! I took 3 days off from my day job just to rest and do some things that NEEDED to be done! I have recommitted to my weight loss.

Here's the question: What good am I to God if I'm tired all the time?  There is a reason God rested on the 7th day! He doesn't slumber nor sleep. Why did He rest? To set the example for us!  We are human and need the rest but ...

     *Spiritual. We can't do anything without God's help!  Without that special time with God each day where we are feeding on His Word, drinking in His company through the Body of Believers; we become weak. We need nourishment that can only come from God!  Jesus wasn't joking when He did Communion with His close friends.  "Here's my body, take and eat"  Jesus is the Word of God, we have to devour Him!  Dive into His teachings and feast on every word!  "Here is my blood, take and drink"  Jesus is the Living Rock from which the Living Water flows.  To get refreshed, we much drink Him in!

If Jesus were to ask me how I read this particular piece of Bread, I'd have to say it means God wants to be my EVERYTHING! He wants to be my heart beat, He wants to be my soul mate, He wants to be my muscle.
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3 comments:

  1. Vivian,

    I loved when you wrote, "To get refreshed, we much drink Him in!" How true is that. Not only does Jesus need to be in our mind and thoughts, but he needs to envelope our soul and being as well. Blessings to you in your journey.

    Kelly (OBS Small Group Leader)

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  2. Vivian,

    I loved when you wrote, "To get refreshed, we much drink Him in!" How true is that. Not only does Jesus need to be in our mind and thoughts, but he needs to envelope our soul and being as well. Blessings to you in your journey.

    Kelly (OBS Small Group Leader)

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  3. Oh, if we could love God with ALL our heart, soul and strength... What a great reminder that he wants us to rest physically in order to live spiritually. I liked your statement that we must DAILY yield full control of our will to God. What great encouragement for us to ask him to direct our steps of busyness vs stillness. Thanks for sharing!!

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