Your Heart, Soul, Strength and Mind

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And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, ...” 
Luke 10:27a ESV
Luke 10:27 is probably one of the popular verse that pastors would quote in their teachings. To put it simply, the Scripture commanded us to love God with everything we have. In fact, to break it down to us, the Scripture mentioned 4 different levels of commitment to love God: heart, soul, strength and mind.

1. Love God with all your heart

The heart is often associated with affections. It describes our deepest longing to be in a relationship with someone. When we say to connect hearts, we often mean to connect people in the most intimate relationship possible.

So then, to love our God with all our hearts, is to give our entire affections to Him. Our heart's deepest longing must begin with an intimate relationship with Him. We must desire to see Him and to communicate with Him. This desire and affection for Him is the very drive for us in everything else we do. The heart shall set our entire motive, direction and objective in pursuit of Him.

To love God with all our hearts, is to give our entire affection and desire for Him.

2. Love God with all your soul

The human body (in a biblical sense) is made up of the body, the soul and the spirit. The soul dictates the character, personality, intrinsic instincts, quality, attitude and emotions of a man. Therefore, the evidence of a person's soul is manifested through his actions and personalities.

To love our God with all our souls, is to manifest our love for Him through the transformation of our personalities and attitudes. The quality of our beings must display His quality as a holy and loving God. Our souls must imitate Christ, who is our very example of holiness. We must allow the Holy Spirit to transform us daily, to be more like Jesus.

To love our God will all our souls, is to display God through our beings.

3. Love God with all your strength

The Lord gave strength to men that we may work. In our works we find our respective purpose in the society. Work gives our lives meaning. To have strength is to live a purposeful existence.

To love our God with all our strength, is to glorify our God by giving our best in everything we do. It means to be the best in our respective roles: be it a parent, a son, a daughter a student, an employee, a CEO, a street cleaner, a teacher, a preacher, a designer, an engineer and etc. The Scripture also called us to glorify Him in anything that we do.

To love our God with all our strength, is to pursuit God with excellence in our respective societal role.

4. Love God with all your mind

The mind creates, directs and command our beings. The mind thinks, so be our fruit. If the mind is empty, and so is our deeds.

To love our God with all our mind, is to keep our minds occupied by the goodness and sweetness of God. John Piper describes the indulgence of sins springs from our spiritual boredom. Our minds are not designed to deal with emptiness, therefore, in our attempt to our minds occupied, we resort to Facebook, TV, video games, pornography, addictions, sex and etc. When we keep our minds occupied with God, the satisfaction of God's goodness shall be far satisfying that all the vices of the world can offer.

To love our God with all our mind, is to keep boredom out of our minds with the goodness of God.
~~~
Please don't get me wrong. I don't mean if you can't do any of these, you are any less worthy of being saved. Let's face it, none of us can do that as prerequisites to reach God. These are not prerequisites. They are results of a total affection and worship of God. It is a fruit of God's compelling love for us. His love drives us to give our all to Him, that we may tell Him how much we love Him in return.

God deserves to be the center of our affection, our exemplary identity, our Purpose and our every thought. He deserves to be put at the top of our priorities. He deserves to be the First to receive our Best.

God's Character, My Encounter.

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