By: Maggie A. Escoto
People seek love in many different places. When find the person we have many feelings and emotions for them. Sometimes we love to the point of not being able to live without them. They become our entire world and we love them with all our heart, mind and soul. This could be said of our children, parents, relatives, and friends. My question is, "Why do we have a difficult time loving God in the same way?" Why can't we love God with all our heart, mind and soul (Matthew 22:37)? He has given us everything we need as well as the ability to love Him. He commands us to love Him with everything we have above all things and everyone else.
Give your attention to what Jesus called the greatest responsibility of them all: loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Jesus had already distinguished Himself as a teacher and healer. He had already upset the religious establishment of His day. He had already commissioned His disciples and made His final approach to Jerusalem. Then Jesus took a question from the crowd: "What is the most important commandment of all? What has been Your guiding light and prevailing vision? What do You stand for, in 10 words or less?"
Jesus never missed a beat. He came up with a show-stopping, winning 6-second sound bite: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." "Love God with all your passion, prayer, intelligence, and energy." (The Message). "Understand this, put it into practice, and you won't be far from the reign of God itself." (Mark 12:30, 34).
No one would dare to ask Jesus another question. Everything flows from this one central doctrine. That was exactly why He came into the world - to show people how to love. When asked to break it down, after years of demonstration, He placed the spiritual first and the social second. He placed our love for God at the hub of the wheel. It looks like this: 1) God 2) Spouse 3) Children/Family 4)Work 5) Ministry 6) Everything else.
Passion, it has been said, is the very fact of God in us. To love God, we must begin by wanting to love God above everyone and everything else in the world. If we don't want it that badly, it will never happen at all. There is too much to distract us. Too much to keep us busy. Too much to discourage us. These are all, as Deuteronomy says, tests of the Spirit. Loving God is neither an easy nor a natural thing to do. Think about the difficulties involved with loving even one other person fully and completely. Here at least we have a commonality of experience, dimension, and proportion. It is even more difficult to love God fully and completely, since our experiences, dimensions, and proportions are so totally different. We are perishable; God is imperishable. We are limited, God is unlimited. We are changeable, God is unchangeable. The beauty, truth, and justice of God is just beyond us.
Jesus said, "Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and the door shall be opened. Ask, and it shall be given." He was not talking about the things of this world, but about the things of God. When we seek the kingdom of God first, all things will be added (Matthew 6:33)....right relationships, prosperous business deals, restored and healed relationships, healed emotions, etc. etc.
Prayer:
Lord, please draw me near to you as you promise in Your Word (James 4:8). I long and desire to learn how to dwell in Your presence and have a more intimate relationship with You. Teach me what I need to learn in order to know You better. I want to know all the truth about who You say You are (Psalm 145:18).
I am open and submit myself to whatever You want to do in me. I want to know You as my Healer, my Deliverer, my Redeemer, and my Comforter. I need to know You today as my (insert a name). I believe and trust You will be that to me.
God, help me to set time aside to get to know You. Enable me to resist anything that would keep me from it. Teach me to pray the way you want me to. Help me to learn more about You. Put people in my life that will help me know You more. Lord, you said, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink" (John 7:37). I thirst for more of You because I am in a dry place without You.
Lord, draw me close so that I may dwell in Your presence like never before.
