JUL 18

Mark 12:28-34
Memorise Mark 12:30
“Take good heed therefore unto yourselves, that ye love the LORD your God.”

So often, we are told that “we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength”. It is a commandment that appears in the Bible repeatedly, both the Old and New Testaments (Deuteronomy 6:5, 10:12, 30:6, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27). Surely as we look at all these verses, we realise that it indeed is a prime duty of man. We know we must surely love God, but how?

We must know that we are called upon to love with our all. All, not some, not a little, not even a lot, but all! We must love with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind and all our strength. Let us now look at what each individual component entails.

1. Heart – Our heart is the seat of our affections, the centre of our emotions. When we love God with all our heart, it means that there is nothing more we desire but Him, and all the other things that we love would fade in comparison, and we would be ready to give up, do, or suffer anything in order to please and glorify Him.
2. Soul – Our soul is what makes us human, what sets us apart from the animal kingdom. It describes our conscious thoughts, our inner being, our sentient life. To love God with all our soul is to wholly give our being to God, to live our life as a living sacrifice to Him, pleasing and acceptable in His sight. Small discomforts and inconveniences in our lives would mean nothing if it is for the service and glory of God.
3. Mind – Our mind of course speaks of our intellect, our logical thought processes. One who loves God with his mind would be one who rationally decides to love God, to fix his thoughts upon Him constantly. He will constantly seek to know God’s truths, and seek His will. His thoughts will be that of love, and will be filled with desire for God.
4. Strength – Our strength is from the physical body that we have, our energy and vitality that we have been granted. To love God with all our strength is to put in every effort to labour for our master, to strive to do all that we physically can to serve and please Him. This involves labouring hard for God. There may be tiring moments, but we continue to press on, giving our time, energy, at times maybe even health, to serve God.

Thought: Everything of me ought to be involved with loving God.
Prayer: Lord, help me to truly love You with all my heart, soul, mind and strength!