Note: This is a scheduled post. By the time you read this online I am away and might not have internet access where I’m at. Feel free to share your comments though I would be delayed in responding.A short devotional with two quick questions.
First what part of us as a human person is involved with loving God?
- Jesus said, “Jesus answered, “The foremost is, ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; 30 and you shall 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 12:29-30)
- Note what is involved:
- “heart”
- “soul”
- “mind”
- “strength”
- How much of it do you give to loving and serving God? All of it, since each one says “all your heart, all your soul etc”
- Note what is involved:
Second what happen if we don’t love God using every part of us?
- Trying to follow God without our mind makes us stray away from God since we need our mind to sort out what is true and false with the Bible.
- Trying to follow God without our soul makes our religion an outward show since our religion does not involve what’s inside of us.
- Trying to follow God without our strength makes our religion as all talk since we need our strength to serve and obey God.
- Trying to follow God without our heart makes us harsh towards God and others since we need our heart to love God and others. No I know some who know their Hebrew and Greek word for heart might say heart is more than just emotions and it refer to thought and the intellect which I agree; but since I take Jesus in Mark 12:29-30 as quoting from the Old Testament the Hebrew word for heart here seems to be distinguished from mind; there are times where the heart refer to an emotional state in Proverbs 15:13 and Proverbs 17:22. So without an emotion towards God we might ask if its genuinely love and usually a symptom of that is we are not as loving towards others as we should be loving them.
So are you loving God with every part of you? It’s hard to do so. But its by going to the Gospel, to know the depth of His love that would enable to grow in our love for Him with every part of who we are. When was the last time you intentionally study the Gospel deeply?
I really love this piece. You barely find people these days loving with all parts mentioned because of how worldly things cloud our minds and yearn for our attention. Great piece.
Thank you sister for reading this!
It’s my desire to love God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength. I’ve actually had works religionists write me saying they do a pretty good job of it.
[…] via Loving God with all our faculties — The Domain for Truth […]
I loved the content of course but I really like your outlines; they keep things ordered in my mind. Which fits the post!
Wow thank you! That means I lot, I try to work hard to outline clearly when I preach.
I like a preacher who has a good outline it makes note taking so easy