In Mark 12, Jesus was asked which of the ten commandments was most important. His reply surprised them:
‘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.”
What is the first key phrase in this passage? The action verb Jesus began with? LOVE - Love the Lord … your God.
We have to start with the very personal question: How much do I love God?
How do we love God with all our hearts, souls, and minds with all of our strength? Jesus showed us a road map in this passage.
There are four quadrants mapped out of our being that Jesus mentioned here: Heart, Soul, Mind, and strength.
We start with getting present with God - just me and Him - getting still. It is the premise of what we do here every day. We do this by breathing and getting still.
Notice the passage starts with internal, intimate things - not intellectual things like the mind. It begins with our heart and soul. The order to this is critical
We start by paying attention to our heart - what is going on inside. Approaching God as a child with all our feelings, failures and desires and bringing it to Him.
Then we focus on our Soul by getting still and allowing His presence to speak to our inner being - without words.
Only then do we engage our mind by taking in what God is saying.
Lastly, our strength, what we do with encountering God.
These are the steps Jesus laid out to love him wholly.
Listen again to Jesus words.
‘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.”
Start, as Jesus said, with our heart -our feelings, then move to our soul - experiencing God in stillness caring for the deepest part of us, then move to feeding our minds by taking in what he is saying and then, and only then should we move forward in strength Knowing the source.
What part of the four quadrants do you struggle to let be known by God? Heart, soul, mind, strength?
These are all connected. Your heart matters—your soul matters. Your mind matters. What you do matters. But the order matters most.
Can you allow God to love you today? Can you let him know more of you this next year?
As you ruminate on those feelings, let’s take some slow deep breaths once again.
Let’s pray together: “Heavenly Father, thank You for taking all of the laws and simply telling us to love You with all we have, through a relationship with Jesus. Today, I seek Your balance. I give you my heart. My mind. My thoughts. My attitude. My spirit. My being. All that I have for all that You are. As above, so below.”