The Lord has recently impressed the scripture upon my heart (once again) to “Love the LORD your God with ALL your heart and with ALL your soul and with ALL your strength.” And in the Bible He says that THIS is the greatest and most important commandment of them all! It doesn’t say to love Him when it is convenient, when it is easy, when you have time, when He blesses you or even when you “feel” like it but with ALL of you, ALL the time.
As I wrestle with this concept myself as to how I can possibly do this and what this actually LOOKS like I marvel at what we have currently defined it to be in our lives. We say we “love the Lord” but then seem to be content with giving Him only 5 to 10 minutes of our time each day with a couple of “help me” or “help them” prayers and if He’s lucky, a couple of “thank You’s” thrown in for good measure. Or if we are really good, we spend a couple hours with Him and talk about Him to some people throughout the day.
But wait! His instructions get even better! He tells us in this same scripture, in Deuteronomy 6 that His “Words” should be written “upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates…” And in Deuteronomy 11 He say’s it AGAIN “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates…” And with this scripture He prefaces it by saying “Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them”
Wow. These scriptures are so powerful and so “all encompassing” and they are saying that we should be “consumed” with Love for HIM so much so that His words are upon our hearts and spoken from our mouths at every point in our day… or we will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods.
When I try to wrap my mind around what that scripture would look like in my own life, I think about what “love” looks like in the world. The closest thing that I can come up with is when you first meet someone and fall in love and your mind and thoughts are consumed with that person all day long. You think about him/her every moment, you can’t wait to talk with them and you look forward to when you can be with them again. And when you are with them, you wish time could stand still so that you can be in “that moment” with them for all time. You pour yourself and your time into that person and begin to build a relationship with them. When I think about that, I feel like that is the LEAST that God is asking of us... of ME. Do I love Him so much that all else fades away and is set aside for Him? Sadly my answer is a disappointing “no”… but do I WANT to be there? In this case, my answer is a resounding “YES”!! But how do I get there??!!
I know I am not the only one that struggles with this. The enemy has done an amazing job of pulling us away from our “first love” and has convinced us that we “need” to have the “American dream” or even better yet. that “God” wants us to have it! We believe hat God wants us to have the homes, the cars and all the “good things” that the world and life has to offer and we even believe that those things are His “blessings” for us… but all those “things” actually take us and our time away from Him! In order for us to be able to afford these things… that He has supposedly “given” us, we have to work mega hours, focusing on our jobs and not Him. And when we are home we need to take care of the house, mowing the lawn, painting, doing repairs, making improvements, doing yard work… And by the time we are done with all of that work we are so exhausted we sit in front of our big screen TV to relax and gel out. And we think that “this” is what He wants for us?? Stress, exhaustion, financial burdens and ZERO time with Him? Some how I can’t reconcile the Deuteronomy scriptures with what most of our lives look like today… I believe we have been deceived and we have been “enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them” and still we believe we are doing what God wants us to do!??
One of the “key” components of the enemies “American dream” is FEAR. The more you have the more fear you have of loosing it! You work and you sweat and you sacrifice your relationship with God, your family and your health to climb up the corporate ladder to earn a six figure income… (Or something like that) to collect your many possessions that signify and represents your successful life… but in reality, all of that could be swept away in a heart beat! A layoff, sickness, a fire, economic decline, bankruptcy… could sweep away all of your work and efforts in a blink of an eye! These two scriptures come to mind when I think of collecting things on earth and the concept of “retirement”; Matthew 6:19-21 - “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” And Luke 12:15-21 - “Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." ‘But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God” Based on these scriptures (and there are many more like them!), I have a hard time believing that God would want us to invest so much of ourselves and our lives for the “things” of this world and not in HIM.
So then eventually, in our pursuit of the “American dream”, we wonder why we have no joy, why God seems so far away and what happened to my marriage and family…?! Why is my spouse leaving me for another? Why are we in such financial distress, physical decline and an emotional wreck? WE HAVE BEEN DECIEVED! The “American dream” was not God’s idea! The whole concept of working your tail off during the prime of your life, to collect things and money so that you can one day “retire” and finally live the life you’ve always wanted to live is a LIE and a trap… And dare I say bondage? I hear God’s heart for us to choose HIS way when I read the scripture in Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
When I read the scriptures in Deuteronomy I envision the instructions to be something like the way we would think about living our life and seeing our future with a “job” or “career”. He asks us to commit our lives to “loving” Him and “living” Him. To going to school to “learn” about Him and get to know Him and then invest the rest of our days serving Him (as He leads us in our gifts) and then, when we do this, we will be reaping the benefits of our service to Him as He pours His blessings upon us... or actually I should say, as He pours “Himself” into us, because we even have a “tweaked” idea of what His blessings are too! But, what I think is happening is that the deception is so great, we believe, using this analogy, that we can show up to our jobs for 5 or 10 minutes a day, or at best, a couple hours a day, and most of the time hang out with our co-workers chit chatting, and then go home to do what WE want to do! And then we expect the company to pay a full days wage plus provide the promised benefits and then we get upset and indignant when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain. That is the work of the master deceiver! When you look at it that way you can’t help but see the ridiculousness of it all! In Oswald Chambers April 15th entry he says: “God wants you to be entirely His, and it requires paying close attention to keep yourself fit. It also takes a tremendous amount of time. Yet some of us expect to rise above all of our problems, going from one mountaintop experience to another, with only a few minutes' effort.”
Unfortunately, another added difficulty to our quest is that we have been raised in the society of “instant gratification” and have to battle the constant message of “I want what I want, and I want it now!”… Waiting on God, working hard to develop spiritual strength and investing your time in getting to KNOW God, sacrificing your fleshly desires is NOT what is encouraged in this world around us…
One good way to find out how serious God is about something is if he repeats it a couple of times in His Word… So the following are the scriptures I have found that say this, and things like it… but these are just a “sampling” of what is there…:
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 – “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 strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates…”
Deuteronomy 10:12 – "And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you except to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, and to worship the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul?”
Deuteronomy 11:13-22 - “So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today--to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul-- … Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them… Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many…”
Deuteronomy 13:3 – “do not listen to that prophet's words or to that dreamer. For the LORD your God is testing you to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and all your soul.”
Deuteronomy 30:6 – “The LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and all your soul, so that you will live
Joshua 22:5 – “Only carefully obey the command and instruction that Moses the LORD's servant gave you: to love the LORD your God, walk in all His ways, keep His commands, remain faithful to Him, and serve Him with all your heart and all your soul."
Matthew 22:36-38 - “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.' This is the first and greatest commandment."
Mark 12:28-31 – “One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" The most important one, answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel
Luke 10:25-28 - “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" What is written in the Law? he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' ; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " You have answered correctly, Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
Psalms 119:1-20 – “Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD. Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart. They do nothing wrong; they walk in his ways. You have laid down precepts that are to be fully obeyed. Oh, that my ways were steadfast in obeying your decrees! Then I would not be put to shame when I consider all your commands. I will praise you with an upright heart as I learn your righteous laws. I will obey your decrees; do not utterly forsake me. How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O LORD; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word. Do good to your servant, and I will live; I will obey your word. Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. I am a stranger on earth; do not hide your commands from me. My soul is consumed with longing for your laws at all times.”
Psalms 1:1-3 – “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.”
John 15:4-7 – “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.”
Psalms 12:6 - “And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.”
1 Peter 1:24-25 – "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever."
2Timothy 3:16-17 – “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Hebrews 4:12-13 – “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
Father, I pray for all of us right now and I pray that we would learn to “walk in Your ways” and follow your decrees and to Love you with ALL our hearts, minds, soul and strength! Lord, show us what that looks like for each one of us! I know that we each have been created for a different and specific purpose for service in Your Kingdom, teach us how to work for YOU in YOUR kingdom and not for the prince of this world. Help us to not “be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them” but to serve you only! Open our eyes to see the life the YOU desire for us! Please take the scales and the blinders off and help us to see YOUR truth and walk in Your ways. In Your mighty and precious name I pray, amen!
1 comment:
Amen, Linda. Isn't the struggle worth it because He is the prize -- the gold at the end of our every rainbow :)
May we all carry a torch for the Lord. May we love Him with our heart & soul, but especially may we love God with all our strength -- our resources (us in our entirety) spent His way -- loving Him vehemently; wholly, speedily, especially when repeated; diligently, especially, exceedingly, greatly, louder and louder, mightily, utterly; to rake together; a poker for turning and gathering embers; a firebrand (i.e. torch).
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