How do we "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind?" It means a total commitment (nothing reserved for anything else) that consumes every fiber of our being. Many of us break down at this point. We think that this means becoming a wierd person who hides from "worldly" people or having to memorize the entire New Testament and be in prayer from 3:00 - 6:00 every morning.
Obviously, scripture memorization and prayer are fundamental elements of the christian life, but they are not the goal; they are a couple of the ways we get to the HSM (heart, soul, mind) relationship. The person in the HSM relationship is marked by what his life produces more than what he person does. When we live the HSM life, our lives are at the same time faith-filled and practical. Christ moved among those who had no hope of meeting Him through conventional church circles because they were of the wrong occupation, gender or race. He went to where those people were and talked with them at their level of understanding. He met both spiritual and physical needs and although He didn't judge, he was very frank about addressing the sin in their lives and made it clear that they needed to change. But since the love He clearly showed them opened their hearts to Him, they were willing to change for Him.
When we love the Lord our God with all your heart and with all our soul and with all our mind we will naturally do the next part, that of loving our neighbors as ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment