June 5

Love The Lord Your God

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength." Mark 12:30

Jesus summed up true religion in two commandments: the one above, along with the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. The commandments of love do indeed sum up what is required of those who hope to be like Christ. Love requires action on the part of the one doing the loving. One cannot remain dormant and truly love. Loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength requires not only our full attention, but also an intense desire or longing to be close to God. Love eagerly cleaves to, stands in awe of, and constantly rests in God. Love is supremely pleased and satisfied with God as its portion. When we love God with our whole heart, we can love nothing in comparison to him. We will be willing and ready to give up or suffer any thing in order to please and glorify God, our Father. When we love God with all our soul and with all our life, we will be ready to give up our lives for God's sake; to be deprived of comfort and convenience if it means bringing glory to God. When we love God with all our strength, we will be exerting all the powers within our bodies in the service of God. When we love God with our entire mind, we will apply ourselves to KNOWING God, not just knowing about God. There are many in this world that know about God, but they do not have a personal father/son relationship with Him. They do not know Him in an intimate way a son would. This is what Jesus says is required of us: that we have such an intense desire and longing to be close to God, to know Him, and to serve Him that we will give Him our all. He will be our everything, and our world will revolve around Him

Father, we long to be close to you, to love you with the same intensity with which you have loved us. Teach us to love you in that way. Help to free us from the distractions of life and keep our focus on you. Oh, we pray that we will be so consumed with only you that we will not rest until we have brought you glory with our last dying breath! Amen