With All Your Heart

Read Proverbs 10

Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”

Mark 12:29-31

How many times have you loved with all your heart? We often find it surprisingly easy. The idea of loving with our whole heart appeals to us. We understand and desire the intensity of such love.

Our problems arise from the objects of our affection: We love what we shouldn’t love. In fact, it is easier to be wholehearted in our love for almost anything other than God. Jesus warned that our hearts tend to be wrapped around our treasures (Matthew 6:21), and few of us treasure God as we ought. Yet obedience begins by loving God with our whole heart. Jeremiah recorded this starting point, from which the Lord quoted above: “If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me” (Jeremiah 29:13).

What we don’t seek and love with our heart, we will not love with our soul or strength. Since we will love God only to the degree that we have “found” him, we must intensify our search. We must persist in asking God to reveal himself to us, noting the way the character and mind of God were revealed in Jesus. Everything we need to know about love we find in Jesus.

A WORD FOR TODAY

The greatest proverb—“Love God.”

Lord, show me one part of me that is not entirely committed to loving you. Give me your grace and strength to conform that part.