Prayer
Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this simple prayer based on Psalm 116:1-2
I love You, Lord, for You have heard my voice;
You have heard my cry for mercy.
Because You always turn Your ear to me,
I will call on You as long as I live.
Speak Your word of life to me today, Lord. Amen.
Reading
It feels appropriate that we arrive at this commandment almost at the very centre of our year, because this is THE central command of the entire Bible and of the teachings of Jesus:
“Love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
Everything else in life flows from this greatest commandment. It is the foundation on which everything else is built. It is the first step on the road to Life.
When the Sadducees failed in their attempts to trick Jesus into making a mistake, the Pharisees ganged up on Him and tried their best to corner Him into picking one command over another. But Jesus knocked their “trick question” out of the park by quoting from the great Jewish statement of faith, the “Shema” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). He silenced their questioning with these immortal words: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”
Only God is worthy of this love in the highest degree! And this is the level of love for God upon which every believer is called to build our lives.
To love God with all of our emotions (heart) does not mean that we do not love anyone or anything else, but that how we love them will be an expression of our love for God. In other words, even when we are loving others, we are to love them in a way that is an expression of love to God. In so doing, we build our love for others on our love for God.
To love God with all of our decisions (soul) does not mean that we spend our lives only doing religious things. It means that in everything we are to aim to make decisions that please the Lord. This way our very decision becomes an expression of love for God, and in so doing we build our lives on our love for God.
To love God with all of our thoughts (mind) does not mean that we never think about anything other than God, but that we apply our minds to discovering the God we love in all things. Remember, as the Creator, God has placed His fingerprints on everything we can ever observe or know. To love God with our minds is to seek the glory and beauty of the Lord concealed in all things. In so doing we build our lives on our love for God.
Contemplation
Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn one or more of these declarations over and over in your mind. Keep them in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ:
- I will love the Lord with all my heart.
- I will love the Lord with all my soul.
- I will love the Lord with all my strength.
O Lord, I love you! By Your Spirit, please empower and enable me to love You with all my heart, soul and mind. Amen.
Dave's Diary 
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