LOVE GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, SOUL, AND MIND

Jesus said, “Love the Lord your God”

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37)

Have you ever wondered how to love Someone you can’t see, hear, or touch? I have. It’s easy to know love when I share a hug with my daughter, but I can’t share a hug with God. Loving God seems like an abstract concept–until I reflect on Jesus’ command to love God with all my heart, soul, and mind.

With All Your Heart

“With all your heart” tells me to love God with my emotions. When I’m grateful for a smile from a stranger, Jesus says to love God with my gratitude. When I’m awestruck by the variety of birds at my feeders–from the tiny hummingbirds to the giant pileated woodpeckers, Jesus says to love God with my awe. When I grieve the death of a friend, or when I’m angry at an injustice, Jesus says to love God with those emotions too–with all my heart. Psalms is filled with songs that love God with the gamut of human emotions.

With All Your Soul

“Love God with all your soul” tells me to love God with who I become. The image of God as a potter and God’s people as clay runs through the Bible from Isaiah–“We are like clay, and you are like the potter” (64:8) to Paul–“Yet we who have this spiritual treasure are like common clay pots” (2 Cor 4:7). When I love God with all my soul, instead of begging God to make me into who I want to be, I long for God to mold me into who God wants me to be–even if it means trading dreams of a happy family in a four-bedroom house for the mission field in Papua New Guinea.

With All Your Mind

“Love God with all your mind” tells me to love God with my questions and my doubts, my hypotheses and my theories. It tell me to study until I know what I believe and why. Romans offers an excellent example of loving God with all your mind. In that letter the Apostle Paul takes on complicated questions Christians asked about this new faith and analyzes the answers, starting with Adam and working through to Jesus.

Jesus, Our Example

Not only did Jesus tell us how to love God, he showed us how. When he wept outside Lazarus’ tomb, Jesus showed us loving God with all our hearts. When he argued with the Pharisees, Jesus showed us loving God with all our minds. When he went willingly to the cross, Jesus showed us loving God with all our souls. Every step of the way from his baptism to his ascension, Jesus showed us loving God with every fiber of our being.

A Prayer

Lord God, today help me love You with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind.