We are commanded to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. So the question is, “How are you doing? Do you love God today with your complete being?“
We want to say, “Yes”, but we recognize that in our spiritual development we are still woefully shy of perfection. One of our LifeGroups wrestled with this recently and I have had discussions with a few of the group members. Here are a few of my thoughts coming out of that discussion.
Sanctification is the process by which God changes us to become more life Jesus and less like the world. In the process of sanctification God presents us with challenges to change and grow spiritually. As we accept those challenges and allow him to work his character into our lives we are changed. He increases our capacity to respond in loving obedience every time he adjusts our character to become more like his.
A real life example can be drawn from our missionary friends – Jay Bowyer and Colette Ladan. Both were career oriented ladies, each having success in their respective companies. They were involved in a small group in their home church that was studying this very concept. As a group they were of responding to the challenges that God brings to their lives to grow in their Christ-likeness. The members of the group decided together that they would be obedient to God and spent two weeks of their vacation time working with a camp in the country of Poland. While the two week mission was a significant step in obedience it was really the first step of many that saw Jay & Colette resign from their corporate positions and move to Poland to begin to pursue that to which they believe God has called them.
That’s usually how God works in our lives, leading us step-by-step, challenge-to-challenge, as he works his nature into our lives. God is leading us toward holiness and away from sin. Consider someone who is convicted by God of their own self-centered attitude. Their response to God’s challenge may be a very small first step in doing something for others – a simple cup of cold-water action. But that action awakens in them something significant and soon they are serving like they have never served before. Pretty soon their service has become habitual and the godly character of sacrifice has replaced the sin of selfishness.
These are examples of what I mean by the increased capacity that God gives to us so that we can love him more completely. With all the capacity we have we should be able to say I love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength. As we honestly respond to God’s growth challenges that come into our lives we will discover that next week or next month I will be able to say with greater understanding and a greater depth of experience that I love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength.
2 comments:
It is great to see sanctification at work, but I struggle with the connection to sanctification and loving God with all of my heart, mind, soul and strength. Imagine, as a married man, that I'm unfaithful to my wife. If I come to her and say, "Its okay, I was loving you as much as I can, and I'm sure that over time I'll come to love you more." I kind of doubt that such an action and response would be well received.
Admittedly, there are all kinds of problems with that analogy. First off, a wife isn't God and cannot extend grace like he does. Additionally, A marriage may or may not be guided by and enhanced over time by the Holy Spirit, but the point I'm trying to make, in human terms, is that nobody would be convinced, least of all my wife in such a situation, that I am loving her if I was unfaithful. Sin is unfaithfulness to God, and we do it all the time (e.g., coveting, showing favoritism [see James 2]).
We are weak, and we cannot love God with all of our strength. We have additional strength, for which we serve ourselves. So, looking just at strength, let's say that we measure strength in points from 1 to 10 with 10 being full strength. A Christian may put forth 5 points to God, or 9 points if they are very dedicated. In our weakness, we use those other points to serve ourselves. In other words, "all" of our strength is split between loving God and loving ourselves. I think it is a lie to say that we use all of our strength and the watching world would not agree with us either.
Several times in the New testament and the Old, we find this command to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. While it may take us a lifetime to truly understand what that means, I believe all of the above are possible because Jesus said it was the greatest commandment. The Father wouldn't command us to do something that was impossible for us to do, it might just take us our entire lives to understand what that means.
Loved your reflection Steve.
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