Good day!! Welcome back to another edition of GSM’s “Refill with Randy” blog. Once again my name is Dave Good and it is my honor to spend the next few minutes with you. I pray my words will be a blessing and encouragement as you start your day.
Today, I would like to start a 2 part series on the greatest commandments. Jesus himself confirms to us the greatest commandments in Matthew 22:36-39 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
That sounds easy enough. I love how Jesus keeps simplifying things for us. At first God gave the Israelites some 600 plus laws to follow after He guided them out of Egypt. No one could uphold all those laws so God proceeds to give us the 10 commandments. Surely we can follow 10 simple rules, right? Once again 10 rules were too much for us to handle. So Jesus sums up our entire Christian walk in two commands: Love the Lord with all your heart, soul and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. How easy is that?
Let’s take a few minutes and dissect the first command, “Love your God with all you heart, all your soul, and all your mind”. That sounds easy enough. Don’t we all sit here and say, “I love God!” The clause to that whole statement is with All your whole heart, soul, and mind. This is the part that will separate His people from others.
We all love someone or something. There are just components to our life that occupy our love. For some it’s a spouse, a job, money, a reputation, or a car. For others it’s an addiction or a vice that steals our love away from God. I apologize if I’m getting a little personal but the hard truth is the only thing that opened my eyes. I will be honest and tell you that over my lifetime I think I’ve loved every example I listed. The good news I have to report is that my God slowly began shifting my attention to His love.
Over the years I have really begun to understand just how much God loves me. God has provided me with countless blessings and gifts. God has given me a beautiful family, a wonderful career, amazing friends, and He has showered me with more grace than I deserve. I haven’t even mentioned the most important gift of all which of course is the gift of sending His one and only Son, Jesus, to die for my sins. If all those blessings don’t make you appreciate and love God with all your heart, soul, and mind I would encourage you to spend some reflection time with God. Ask God to reveal just a portion of His love to you and you will soon realize that loving God back is the least we can do.
So the question is, “How exactly can I love the Lord with all my heart, all my soul, and all my mind?”
I’m glad you asked. I have a few recommendations for you to explore.
1. Spend time with God on a daily basis. Devoting time to reading your Bible along with a healthy prayer life will bring you closer to God.
2. Count your blessings. Take time to reflect on how good God has been to you. Make a list of the grace, mercy and favor God has bestowed on you over the years and it will illuminate Gods great love for you.
3. Evaluate how you spend your spare time. When you take a step back and examine how you utilize you time you might be surprised. How much time are we spending on our phones watching tv, or hobbies. You might be surprised how much time is given to those instead of your walk with God. Once you get a sense of where you spend your time ask God to help you reprioritize.
Friends, the true key to loving God begins with the recognition of how much God loves us. He loved us first and sent his son to save us from our sins. Living for Jesus and loving him with all your heart requires gratitude and purpose. As you grow closer and closer to Him it becomes easier and easier to love him with all your heart. This type of love doesn’t always happen overnight but will be the most rewarding decision of your life.
Join me next week when we will visit the 2nd greatest command. Love thy neighbor as they self. Until then have a great week!
Refill with Randy 