7-26-10
Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.” (Mk. 12:30) What does it look like to love God with all our heart and mind? God is Love who burns as an all-consuming fire of jealousy. He wants to take over our life and to consume us from the inside out by dominating our affections, thoughts and words. This love is not passive but passionate. The more we seek to live for love, the more broken we will be with true humility and seeking to obey Him.
God wants us to love Him with all of our heart and mind, because He loves us with all of His heart and mind. It is our debt and gift to love God. His requirement for us to love Him is to our great benefit.
Jesus wants to reveal Himself to us as more than our Savior (forgiver), healer, and master, but as the jealous Bridegroom God who will not relent in His pursuit of us until He has all of our heart. “For the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God (Ex.34:14). We earnestly ask Jesus to come to us as the God of jealous love who demands everything. As we cry out, “Lord, I want more of you,” Jesus responds by saying, “I want more of you.”
To love God means we seek to love Jesus in a deep and focused way, not just “on the run” as we are seeking more money or good things to happen in our lives. It is to desire to encounter Him more than anything else, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Mt. 5:9)
No one else can give God all “your love” except for you. A unique part of Jesus’ inheritance has been entrusted by the Father to you specifically. It is the love that only you can give. We only get one opportunity to do this in a fallen world where love for Jesus is both costly and rare.
We set our affections on anything we choose. We can determine some of our emotions by setting the heart. We change our mind and God changes our heart (emotions). Our emotions will follow whatever we set ourselves to pursue. We can set our heart to be filled with zeal for God. “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him(Ps. 91:14).
We can intentionally set our affections to love Jesus. This requires we remove everything that diminishes our affections for Him. This requires that we are focused on pursuing love for Jesus more than gaining things and influence. We set our heart to love Him by committing to walk in obedience even when it is costly.
We set our heart for loving God by regularly asking for supernatural help to love Jesus. As you seek Him this week, ask God to pour His love for Jesus into your heart and to direct the reins of your heart into His love.
Blessings,
Gary