Daily Devotion: April 23
Mark 12:30
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
Such a familiar verse, right?! So familiar that it rolls off our tongue. But do you see that tiny but oh so powerful word... that one that sits just a little before “your heart”, “your soul”, before “your mind”, and before “your strength”…that word, ALL? What does that word mean? Merriam Webster defines it as, “the whole amount, quantity, or extent of”, it also defines it as, “the whole of one's possessions, resources, or energy”. I really like these definitions, they encompass a lot of our being.
This verse could have simply read, Love the Lord your God with your heart and with your soul and with your mind and with your strength. But it doesn’t, it also doesn’t read; with some of your heart or with a quarter of your soul or with your mind whenever you feel like it, nor does it say with minimal strength. It intentionally says with “ALL”. I think knowing how we are consumed by other things and how our hearts tend to wander, it had to be the word ALL.
This verse doesn’t specify when I am to love God in this manner, so to me it’s all the time, in every aspect of my life. Of course, I don’t always live this out, my sinful nature takes over and more often than not, I am confessing my sin and struggling like Paul in doing what I don’t want to do and not doing what I want to do. He said it in Romans 7:15-19, “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”
My desire is to love God with every fiber of my being yet He knows that I struggle, I don’t intentionally veer away from God but I know when I do, I can come back and be forgiven. God is so gracious and so loving that He receives me as if it were the first time every time. So thankful He is a God of many chances and He forgives me every time.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
Such a familiar verse, right?! So familiar that it rolls off our tongue. But do you see that tiny but oh so powerful word... that one that sits just a little before “your heart”, “your soul”, before “your mind”, and before “your strength”…that word, ALL? What does that word mean? Merriam Webster defines it as, “the whole amount, quantity, or extent of”, it also defines it as, “the whole of one's possessions, resources, or energy”. I really like these definitions, they encompass a lot of our being.
This verse could have simply read, Love the Lord your God with your heart and with your soul and with your mind and with your strength. But it doesn’t, it also doesn’t read; with some of your heart or with a quarter of your soul or with your mind whenever you feel like it, nor does it say with minimal strength. It intentionally says with “ALL”. I think knowing how we are consumed by other things and how our hearts tend to wander, it had to be the word ALL.
This verse doesn’t specify when I am to love God in this manner, so to me it’s all the time, in every aspect of my life. Of course, I don’t always live this out, my sinful nature takes over and more often than not, I am confessing my sin and struggling like Paul in doing what I don’t want to do and not doing what I want to do. He said it in Romans 7:15-19, “For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.”
My desire is to love God with every fiber of my being yet He knows that I struggle, I don’t intentionally veer away from God but I know when I do, I can come back and be forgiven. God is so gracious and so loving that He receives me as if it were the first time every time. So thankful He is a God of many chances and He forgives me every time.
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1 Comment
Love this!