Learning to Love God

“And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today.” (Deuteronomy 6:5-6 NLT)

My sense is that even if we know this command when we first respond to Christ’s invitation to love and serve Him, we really don’t have a clue as to how to obey it. How do you do ANYTHING with your whole heart, soul, and strength?

In the original language the words in the verse above are almost interchangeable. The word translated “heart” can also be translated “soul.” And the word for “soul” can also be translated “heart.” I’m not a Hebrew scholar by any means but think about the word “love” in the English language. We use the same word when referring to ice cream, puppies/kittens, sports, traveling, the ocean, nature, or our spouse.

So, how do we love anything with our whole being? Think about the avenues through which we can offer our love. We can love with our mind, our emotions, our spirit, and our body. And how can we give visibility to the love we have in our heart, mind, soul, or body? We think about what we love, we feel deeply about what we love, our inner self burns with passion for that which we love, and our body becomes the vehicle whereby we pursue what we love.

What might those things look like? Let’s say I “love” cars (automobiles). As a child I begin to collect model cars. I build kits of different kinds of cars. I save my money to buy them, to buy paint, glue, and whatever else I need to put them together. I begin to differentiate which ones are my favorites, so, I buy more of that type of car, or I paint them with more care. I showcase my favorite cars and protect them from being damaged. As I grow older, I shift my fascination with model cars to real cars.

The point is, we spend time, money, energy, effort on the things we “love.” Loving God is no different. Ultimately, the thing or things we love captivate us and demand our heart, mind, soul, and strength, or we find something else that does. The irony of loving God is we want to love Him, but we also want to love our sin. We want to pursue God, but we also want to pursue what tempts us.

Jackie Hill Perry wrote: “I love God more than what I am tempted by.” To love God with all our heart, soul, and strength demands we make decisions regarding how we think, what we allow to feed our soul, and how we invest our body. What you think about comes about, so, if we’re going to think godly thoughts, we must feed our minds on things that are God-honoring, and spirit uplifting.

That’s the destructive nature of addictive behaviors. One minute we think it’s “under control,” until someone finds out, and we swear we’re done with it. That’s when we learn we didn’t have a destructive habit, it had us. It doesn’t matter our habit of choice, it can be porn, alcohol, cigarettes, drugs, sex, swearing, or any other demonic means the devil uses to entrap us.

Ultimately, what controls our mind will control every other area of our life. That’s why reading and memorizing Scripture is so critical. We can’t hope to act right if we can’t learn to think right. We must train our eyes and ears to reverence the Lord Jesus in such a way that when we see or hear something that isn’t wholesome and God honoring, we immediately redirect our mind and heart to focus on Jesus.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊