ALL, ALL, ALL {Matthew 22:37-40; 23:23-24}
4:00 PM
There
are only 2 great commandments. How
difficult can this be? Well, it really
is quite difficult for the majority of us.
Why? Because they are the hardest
to live by.
As
I began looking into more about these verses, I kept praying that the Lord
would lead me to what I needed to learn and change about myself. And I hate to say it, but these commandments
are really difficult. You see, I can
easily find myself distracted by everyday tasks only to find myself too tired
to spend time with the Lord. Or I can
sit down in my prayer corner and discover I’ve spent far too much time on
Facebook, and I need to get out of the chair and get ready for work. Or how about the time I’ve spent thinking
about something, well maybe it’s more like worrying about something or someone
instead of praying about it/them. Or the
time someone gets under my skin!
How
can we love the Lord with ALL our hearts, soul and mind? We first have to ask ourselves where our
affections lie. What occupies our
time? What motivates our actions? And what shapes our aspirations and their
reward? Affections wait to be captured. They long to cling to someone or
something. Wherever these affections are
found, so our hearts will be.
The
devotion of our hearts is determined by whatever we find value as our greatest
treasure. Matthew 6:21 says, “For
where your treasure is, there your heart will be.” Jesus just gave us the answer to how to love
God with ALL our hearts. The heart loves
what it treasures! Repeat that. The heart loves what it treasures!
In
order for the heart to love Jesus completely, it has to treasure Him
supremely. Our affections are the
outcome of what we truly treasure. When
we truly encounter the Lord in His glory and worth, loving Him with ALL our
hearts will be the end result. We need
to be like Paul in Philippians 3:8 and make Jesus the treasure of our
life. The loss of everything else is
nothing compared to gaining Christ.
Have you ever had a moment (hopefully you’ve had many) where you are saturated in love? I know I have, and what’s even greater is the desire to share it. You know it’s undeserved, yet you are utterly, overwhelmingly loved and it’s overflowing so much, you cannot contain it. This summer began this way for me as I started each day in the gospels.
But
what about those dry moments? What
causes them? 2 Corinthians 4:6-7 reminds
us to spend time with the Lord and let His light shine in our hearts. It’s only through the persistent gaze on the
face of the Lord and His glory do the streams of light pierce our hearts with
the same power and force that keeps the Seraphim consumed before His throne
(Rev. 4:8).
Do
you long to “feel” love? Ask the Lord to
be your ultimate treasure and ask Him to give you the power to do so! And open your bible and let those words come
to life.
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