loving God

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Deuteronomy 6:5

This is the commandment that Jesus said summarized all of the Law as the greatest commandment (Matthew 22:37-38). It is what God wanted from His people Israel. He wanted not their fear or their rote obedience, but their complete love. He wanted their hearts. God truly is love and He loves us. And God wants us to know His love and love Him. That truth warms my own soul as I think on it now.

Lord,

I want to love You with all of my heart. I want to feel my love for You as the strongest emotion in my soul. I want You to move my emotions. You must be my joy and my deepest love. I want my first thoughts and my last thoughts each morning and each night to center on Your love for me in Christ and my love for You, my Savior and my God!

Lord,

I want to love You from my soul. I want the passion of my life to be knowing Jesus and making Him known. I want my inner person consumed in that sort of thought all day... every day.

And Lord,

I want to love You with all my might. I don’t want a tidy, compartmentalized, pigeon-holed, Sunday only kind of lip-service love to You. I don’t want hype and clapping and shouts that don’t carry in my heart more than a worship gathering. I want each day filled with expressive, intense, loving thoughts of You that then lead to actions that honor, worship, obey, and proclaim Your greatness O my Lord!

Amen