During my freshman year of college, I was at a conference
and I was listening to Francis Chan speak and he got up on the stage and held
up the bible and said something along the lines of, “I wish I could just stand
up here and say to you all ‘read it and do it’ and then walk off the stage
because if we REALLY did that our lives would be dramatically different.” The
truth is, these past few weeks, I haven’t really been reading it and doing it.
Sometimes as disciples we can become distracted (by even
great things, but nonetheless distracted) and lose sight of the MAIN point and
purpose of our lives if we don’t stay grounded in the word.
“Of all the
commandments, which is the most important?”
“The most important
one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is
one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your
neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” – Mark
12:28-31
A lot of us jump straight to the ‘second’ one. We love to
love others.... yes, sometimes it’s hard to love those who are “hard to love,”
but culturally, it’s more accepted. No one is going to question us when we
choose to love others. But why is it so much easier to love others than it is
to love the One who gave it all?
Don’t misunderstand me- loving others is 100% a way to
love Him back... but is that all He means when He says to love Him with ALL
our hearts and with ALL our soul and with ALL our mind and with ALL our
strength? I don’t think so.
Loving Him back with
ALL our heart:
I sort of want to skip this one and come back... but I’m not
going to because then I’d be fleeing what’s hard for me to face. I give away pieces
of my heart to idols KNOWING they will never bring me as much satisfaction as
the Lord, but I do it anyway because I’m sinful and desire “quick fixes” over
“lasting satisfaction.” But even worse than that, I do it because I don’t
trust that He knows what’s best for me. I think I know what’s going to
bring me the most joy and satisfaction. How
could I look at Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and not trust that He knows what’s best for me? It’s not wrong to
desire good things and blessings on this earth, but the key is, do we want them
more than the One who gives them to us?
Loving Him back with
ALL our soul:
David uses the word “soul” countless times in the book of
Psalms and he describes it as “all my inmost being” (Psalm 103). Do I love Him
with ALL my inmost being? Am I honoring Him with the motives that lie BENEATH
my ‘loving’ actions?
Loving Him back with
ALL our mind:
Why do you think Paul has to remind us in Colossians 3 to
“set your minds on things above, not on earthly things?”- Because we are SINFUL
and will naturally choose to focus on earthly things instead of the eternal
perspective that we were intended to focus on. The truth is that this LIFE IS A
VAPOR and yet we choose to dwell for hours that turn into days that turn into
weeks that turn into months that turn into years about insignificant things
when instead we could be investing those thoughts on God and His kingdom-
things above- things that are lasting.
The thing is... and I’m going to be brutally honest... you
aren’t going to think more about “things above” unless you PROACTIVELY make it
a priority. You won’t. We’re humans and we’re sinful and we chose an apple
instead of the Lord.
Have I made loving Him back with my thoughts a priority like
the priority that He is?
Loving Him back with
ALL our strength:
I’m the guiltiest of them all when it comes to this. I
somehow justify in my mind this statement, “I’m too tired to spend time with
the ‘One who promises rest’ (Matt. 11:28).
When we choose to not love Him with our WHOLE
heart, soul, mind, and strength, what we are indirectly saying to the Lord is,
“You’re not worth it.” If we were 100% consumed by the truth that Jesus
DIED for us, we would “conduct ourselves in a manner WORTHY of the gospel of
Christ” (Philippians 1:27).
If you’re like me you may be thinking, “Well I’m human, and
I will never be perfect, so I can’t possibly [on this earth] love Him with
every single part of my heart, soul, mind, and strength without failing.”
But does that change the fact that, in light of His
sacrifice, He still deserves every
single part of our heart, soul, mind and strength? NO.
Wise words from my pal Oswald Chambers remind me “it is the
process, not the outcome, that is glorifying to God.”
It’s not like He is just waiting around until the day when
FINALLY every single part of my heart is devoted to Him and then He is finally glorified- He is glorified every single moment as I choose
to say “no” to my sinful flesh and “yes” to His desire and will for my life. We
make it so complicated when it is really so simple. The decision or choice may
be painful, and the discipline it takes to follow through with the choice may
be hard, but God’s call to love Him back is simple and exactly what we were
designed to do.
Not only can you take one quick look at the world we live
in, but also you can take one quick look at each and every one of our hearts
and you can easily see that we have a problem. We are constantly searching for
people and things to satisfy us... to fill us... we even do this with the Lord.
We spend some time with Him... feel great... and then ‘peace out’ for a few
days or weeks until we need Him again and then we are on our knees “praying for
Him to satisfy us” as if the problem lies in “a lack of the Lord satisfying
us” instead of our own failure “to see that the Lord IS satisfaction.”
The dissatisfaction we feel IS NOT the Lord’s failure to
‘provide more of Himself to satisfy us’- His whole self has already been given to us through His sacrifice.
The emptiness we feel is the emptiness that comes when we choose
to invest our hearts in idols that pretend to fill us and consequently fail us.
So let’s stop praying for God “to satisfy us” when He already did that and MORE on
the cross, and instead let’s pray that the Lord would remind us of who He is, Jehovah Jireh, our Provider, and all He’s done, His ultimate
sacrifice and provision, by allowing our idols to fail us and in turn,
molding our hearts to look more like His Son’s.... a heart that truly desired
NOTHING ELSE on this earth besides His Father and His Father’s desires.... a
heart that loved Him back with all
his heart, soul, mind, and strength.
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us
and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” – 1 John 4:10
Let’s love Him back because He’s way more than worth it,
em
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| "What can I say? What can I do? But offer this heart oh Lord COMPLETELY to You." |
