ALL IN?

 

ALL IN?

Mark 12:29-31 Jesus replied, "The most important commandment is this: 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. Any you must love the Lord your God with all your heart all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.' The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these." NLT

God commands it, so why don't we do it? I don't believe there are too many of us who can honestly say that we love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. If we love God that much, everything about us would show it. It would show in our actions, attitudes, activities, and aspirations. We would seek the Lord above and before all things. We would not step out on our own without first knowing that it is okay with Him. He would so influence our lives that we could not function without Him.

Loving God in this way is not an easy road. It requires great effort on our part. We cannot slack off in our pursuit of Him. We cannot neglect our time in His Word. We cannot neglect our prayer life. We cannot neglect investing our time and energy in serving Him where we are planted.

Equally important is to love each other as much as we love ourselves. We cannot love God passionately and not love others. We cannot take care of ourselves and not do something about the needs of others around us. We are channels of God's love. God's design is that His love would be poured into us so that it can pour out through us into the world.

We cannot love others unless we also love ourselves. Whatever else it means, it means that we take care of ourselves. We invest time and energy in ourselves, especially spiritually. We cannot love ourselves properly unless we first love Christ. It is only when self-love is filtered through God's love that we can please God with the way we love. God's love is a giving love and not a self-centered love.