Jesus replied: ‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”
Matthew 22;37
What has gone wrong, why is the world in such a mess. Every day I switch the news on and I hear of wars and rumours of wars. If not wars we hear of men running round towns/schools killing their neighbours for no apparent reason. Some even claim they are killing others in the name of Jesus. You can’t even walk out of you house without hearing angry shouts, seeing fights and other horrible things. We are surrounded with death hate and anger.
I work in the care sector, I look after, mainly, those near the end of life. I care for them in their own home, enabling them to live an independent life. Not so long ago this would have been done by the family, most families are still actively involved in the care of their elderly. But the family unit is not as it was. There is so much pressure for parents to work, to obtain all the material wealth they feel they need. Children are left with minders, or left to wander the streets until a parent gets home. What is happening to the family unit. How can we know what it is to be in the Family of God
So what is missing,? I think it is our inability to see beyond our own needs, we, mostly, see ourselves as the centre of the universe, the purpose of creation. In other words everything and everyone is/was created to serve ME, making me god. So why did Jesus tell us the greatest commandment is “Love the lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” Is it because God is lonely, or because God needs our love, or that He needs our love to feel omniscient? My experience of God tells me ABSOLUTELY NOT. He IS omniscient and He is a Triune a relationship so intimate that it is beyond our comprehension.
So why does God want us to love Him? If not for His benefit then it must be for ours. I have battled with depression for around 30 years. It was in the early years of the battle that I found Jesus. I had always known there was something missing in my life, I had no purpose or hope. Finding Jesus and falling in love with him brought me back hope, and filled that missing part of me that I had been looking for. That hope has never left me, and why! Because I love Jesus and I have and still am building a relationship with Him. This relationship has taught me to KNOW with absolute certainty, that Jesus is;
- Absolutely trustworthy, He is the rock I can stand on against all that world can throw against me. My Cornerstone.
- He will never, ever, for all eternity leave me.
- He loves me beyond my ability to measure love.
- With Him I am safe and in all things He works for my good.
- He wants me to succeed
- He is omniscient and NOTHING will ever stop Him.
- Not only is He righteous but he is right (two different things)
- And so much more
All of the above can only be for my benefit, but more than this, I know, again, with absolute certainty that I get to spend the the rest of eternity with Jesus at the right hand of God, filled with the Joy of the Lord to my very capacity to hold His Joy.
Loving the Lord my God with all my heart, and my soul and all my mind, will only benefit me. What an amazing God we have.
