Deuteronomy 6:5-7 says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."
I read this passage today and was struck by just how specific it is. God left no room for question. It is very straight forward and I like that. We are to love God with ALL of our heart, ALL of our soul, and ALL of our strength. Not only does he want us to love Him so completely, He also wants us to teach our children to love Him this way.
If we love God with ALL of our heart, than there is no room in our heart to love anything else. There is no room for us to love things that don't fulfill us or bring us true joy. I'm not saying we shouldn't love our families or friends but I believe that in a cool way, when we love those people we are still loving Him. When we love Him with all our heart, He will transform our hearts to be able to love his people.
If we love God with ALL of our soul, we are loving Him with every gift, passion, expertise, intelligence, cause, and desire that we have within us. Our soul is our center, it is what makes us uniquely who we are. When we love God with all of our soul we are loving Him with every amazing aspect of who He created us to be.
If we love God with ALL of our strength, we are allowing our physical self to be used by Him in any way that He sees fit. Whether that is with our hands to feed someone hungry, or our arms to give someone a hug, or our feet to do a walk for charity. Loving God with our strength means be willing and available to be used by God to love on his people.
Lastly, we are to impress this passion for God on our children! God is pretty specific in listing when and where we are supposed to share His love with our kids... when you sit, walk, lay down, and wake up. Pretty much all the time. Your kids will love what you love because they love you. If you love sports there is a good chance your kids will love sports. If you love music, your kids will love music. These are great things but the most important thing is that your kids love God. Do you love God? I hope so! If you do, talk about him, all day and all night.
I believe that if we are loving God with ALL of our heart, soul, and strength it will naturally be evident to our kids and family, and hopefully will encourage them to find a love for Him as well!!
You're right - if we love God will everything, then there won't be room to love those things that aren't good for us. I want to love God completely and demonstrate that love to my children.
ReplyDeleteI've been praying for you guys!
I love this... "If we love God with ALL of our heart, than there is no room in our heart to love anything else. There is no room for us to love things that don't fulfill us or bring us true joy." So simple, yet so profound because it takes such discipline. Thank you Jesus that you encourage us and give us strength to keep our eyes on you and love only you! Great post!
ReplyDeleteI love that passage from Deuteronomy as well. It's very distinct, and absolute in the instructions it gives. I also agree that by loving those around us, by giving love to His Children, we're loving God as well so we still fall within that decree.
ReplyDeleteThank you for an inspirational and encouraging post, and have a Blessed Day!