We are using a couple of Blogs to talk about the meaning and impact of the Great Commandments:
Love God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ And: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself!
Without a love affair with God, all that we do becomes meaningless. Without a love affair with God, we lack the motivation and the passion to do his work. There is a frantic need for a passionate, hot-hearted, intense, consuming love affair with God in this world.
This is the one and only love affair that will take you to heaven, even before you die!
But how is this love relationship to be worked out? There are many similarities with any other love affair, (yes I know its not exactly the same as falling in love with a partner!)
Jesus gives us four ways to work it out: with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength.
Today we hear that we have to love the Lord our God with all our heart.
To love the Lord with all your heart means to love him with pure devotion. It’s not enough to give Christ a (little) place in our hearts. No, we are called to love him with all of our heart.
Remember how it was when you first met that one special person who captured your heart. Remember how you could not hide it and wanted to talk about it to whoever would listen? Remember the look in your eyes when the “beloved” walked into the room? Remember that you were thinking of the loved one all the time, wanted to make phone calls all the time and wrote letters every day? You longed to be with the one you love with all your heart! This person was a high priority in your life. Hope all still remember what we call “being in love" is and how wonderful it is. Being in love is a breathtaking experience. Many would say they were rushed off their feet by it.
Well, to love God with all your heart is a lot like that, and more! It means that your heart is totally devoted to him. It means that you are faithful to him. And it certainly means that God is the most important Person in your life! It means that you cannot stand being separated from him!
Remember the glorious experience of pure devotion when we first became Christians! The Bible calls it our "first love." Hope you remember it — the thrill of meeting Jesus for the first time, and for the first time understanding his love for you as well? You came to him, received his forgiveness and experienced his unconditional acceptance. For the first time you understood why people who know the Lord cannot stop talking about him, working for him, worshipping him, praising him!
How could you help but love him back? Remember the time when you gave Jesus your heart? Your whole heart! The wonder of being a follower of Jesus is, that this amazing love can be fresh every morning. This amazing love for Jesus brings us to love God, who gave us his Son, with all our heart! This love for God is the gift of the Holy Spirit who showed us the precious love of Jesus!
We never have to be deprived of our first love for the Lord. We can love him with all our heart till the end!
Remember the words of the Hymn writer?
Amazing love! how can it be,
that Thou, my God, should die for me?
My chains fell off, my heart was free;
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.(
Next Wednesday we will share on what it means to love God with all our soul!)
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