Love the LORD with all your STRENGTH!
Daily Devotions based on the Sermon Series: “Timely Teaching for Turbulent Times”
Week 4 of 6: “The Impact of Love!”
Full Sunday message, CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
THIS WEEK: LOVE God! How?
It’s not just muscle power.
“Strength” includes all of one’s abilities and capabilities to do something.
What strength do you have?
It’s easy to compare ourselves to others…and in our own minds come out on the losing end. We minimize our abilities, down play our talents, and are blind to our capabilities.
It’s hard to love the Lord with all our strength when we believe that all our strength is our own doing. This leads us to use our strengths to love ourselves. It is also hard to love the Lord with all your strength when we fail to see ALL the strengths we have been given. This leads to minimizing our worth and value.
So let’s shift our minds to understand where our strength comes from…the LORD.
Philippians 4:13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
To love the Lord with all our strength is to love the LORD who gave me strength! I want to start with the perspective that who I am, the abilities I have, the personality I exhibit, and the talents I possess are all gifts from God.
To love the Lord with all our strengths is to realize all he has given me has the purpose to serve him.
1 Peter 4:11 If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
Love for the LORD shifts my focus to use all that he has given me to glorify him. So if I am using my talents in the work place, I use them to his glory. If I am working on my homework for physic class, I am studying to his glory. If I am making dinner for the family, I am serving to his glory. Loving the Lord with all my strength means I am using all my strengths to show my love for the LORD.
At times we feel physically weak or not capable of what is before us. When our strength is weak, our ability to continue also comes from the LORD.
Psalm 29:11 The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.
Ephesians 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,…
With forgiveness when we fail, we love the LORD with all our strength when we realize all our capabilities come from the LORD, all our strength is to be used to glorify the LORD and when we feel weak, we can depend on and rely on the strength the LORD gives.
Apply: How does your day change as you view every activity in which you participate as an opportunity to love the LORD with all of your strength?
Prayer:
Take my life and let it be; consecrated Lord, to thee.
Take my moments and my days; Let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Take my hands and let them move At the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be Swift and beautiful for thee.
Love the LORD with all your MIND!
Daily Devotions based on the Sermon Series: “Timely Teaching for Turbulent Times”
Week 4 of 6: “The Impact of Love!”
Full Sunday message, CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
THIS WEEK: LOVE God! How?
“Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“If only I could read your thoughts.”
Our thoughts are very private. We can think things that no one else will ever know. We fear the ability of technology to “read our thoughts.” We want our thoughts to remain private.
However, our thoughts are not private…to God.
Loving God with all our mind is to align our minds to a loving God.
Our sinful nature can hijack our minds. It loves our thoughts to be selfish. It loves our thoughts to lead us to desire those things that are self-satisfying.
Ephesians 2:3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
So what does it mean to love the LORD with all our mind?
a) We fill our minds with the things that reflect the mind of God:
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
b) We allow our minds to be molded by the thoughts of God’s Word
Hebrews 4:12 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.
c) We allow our minds to always be focused on Jesus.
Hebrews 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.
d) All our thoughts are filtered through a Christ-centered view point.
2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Research is varied, but some suggest we have about 20,000 thoughts a day. To align all those perfectly to the Lord is impossible for sinful human beings. We need and have been given forgiveness. To align each of those thoughts to love the Lord, needs the power of the Holy Spirit. For that we pray!
Apply: What inputs are affecting your thoughts? Evaluate the inputs to your mind and allow only those things that will lead you to make choices that allow God and his Spirit to affect your thoughts more and more.
Prayer: Take my intellect and use every power as thou shalt choose…Take my will and make it thine; it shall be no longer mine. AMEN
Love the LORD with all your SOUL!
Daily Devotions based on the Sermon Series: “Timely Teaching for Turbulent Times”
Week 4 of 6: “The Impact of Love!”
Full Sunday message, CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
THIS WEEK: LOVE God! How?
Everyone human being has one.
It is the part of us that drives our spiritual component.
What is it? Our soul.
The soul is that part of us that desires a connection with the divine.
The question is with what “divine” will your soul connect?
The Apostle Paul recognized the soul can wander to try to identify and understand the divine. The soul wants someone or something to believe in. The soul wants someone or something to hope in. The soul wants someone or something to give confidence of life after this earth.
Acts 17:22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
Paul then revealed the living Jesus not just for their minds to understand, but for their souls to connect to.
Augustine of Hippo has famously said, “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”
While we discussed the heart yesterday, it seems Augustine is referring to this spiritual unrest that our soul feels until it finds rest in the LORD our God.
When our soul finds rest in the LORD our God, here are three blessings:
1. The LORD our God gives our soul a certain and real God in whom we can believe, fully trust.
1 Peter 1:8-9 “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, …”
2. The LORD our God gives our soul a certain and real God in whom we can hope.
Psalm 62:5 Find rest, O my soul, in God alone; my hope comes from him.
3. The LORD our God gives our soul a certain and real eternity to look forward to.
1 Peter 1:9 “…for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
Nothing and no one else can provide certainty in whom we trust, hope we can look forward to and eternity that allows our soul to be at peace no matter what the situation.
To love the LORD our God with all our soul, is to allow our soul to find true rest in the Lord our God.
Apply: What causes your soul to doubt or distance itself from the true God? What is that “god” promising that the Lord your God isn’t? A good read is Tim Keller’s “Counterfeit Gods.”
Prayer: Lord, thank you for my soul and for bring my soul to make its permanent connection with you. Let no false gods tempt my soul to deviate from its desire for you. AMEN.
Love the LORD with all your HEART!
Daily Devotions based on the Sermon Series: “Timely Teaching for Turbulent Times”
Week 4 of 6: “The Impact of Love!”
Full Sunday message, CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
THIS WEEK: LOVE God! How?
It’s not just the organ God created to pump blood through your body.
Your heart is the seat of your inner desires.
Love … “with all your heart” is to align all the deep desires of your inner being to the things the Lord desires.
The Apostle Paul captures what this looks like in his second letter to Timothy:
2 Timothy 2:22 Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
To love the Lord with all my heart is to first FLEE from the evil desires promoted by my sinful nature. What are those desires? Jesus teaches in Mark 7:21-22:
For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside …”
When my heart is captivated by desires for things other than the LORD and his desires, it leads me away from the LORD. My heart can’t be set on worldly treasures and heavenly treasures at the same time. My heart can’t be desiring evil on someone else while also desiring to forgive as I have been forgiven. My heart can’t be filled with pride and arrogance and also desire to be humble before the LORD and before others.
Go through the list above. Which one or two are desires with which Satan regularly tempts you?
Like King David, we have to repent and say, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10).
Only God’s Spirit changes the desires of our heart away from our sinful nature to desire fully the things of God. As the prophet Ezekiel said of God (36:26-27):
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
What does a heart filled with God’s Spirit desire?
43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45 The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart,…(Luke 6:43-45)
What does that fruit look like? What does a heart filled with the Spirit desire?
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22)
To love the LORD your God with all your heart, is to have a heart filled with the Spirit, turned away from evil desires, and desiring to love all the things God loves and produce all the fruit the Spirit desires to be produced.
Apply: Reflect on what your heart desires. Are those desires driven by your sinful nature or the Spirit of God? Repent of evil desires and ask for a renewed measure of God’s Spirit to “Create in you a new heart” that fully is devoted to the things that God desires.
Prayer: Lord our God, forgive me for the desires that feed my sinful nature. Restore me by your Spirit and fill my heart with a renewed desire for all the things you desire. AMEN.
Who is the LORD, our GOD?
Daily Devotions based on the Sermon Series: “Timely Teaching for Turbulent Times”
Week 4 of 6: “The Impact of Love!”
Full Sunday message, CONTEMPORARY or TRADITIONAL
THIS WEEK: LOVE God! How?
In this week’s teaching from Jesus and the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the expert in the law focused on whether he was loving the right people. “Who is my neighbor?” was the question he posed. Jesus then told the parable of the Good Samaritan. (Listen to the message with the links above.)
A statement that looms large in the lead up to the parable is the first part of his answer to the question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” While the message this week didn’t focus much on the first part, in our devotions this week we will ask specifically about the parts of the first statement:
(Luke 10:27) “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’…”
Each one of these components could lead us to want to “justify ourselves” before God and wonder, “And what does it mean to love God with all my….”
But before we get to “heart, soul, strength and mind” let’s pause on WHO we are loving in such a complete way?
We may ask, “And who is the “Lord your God”?
In a world and culture that loves to simply place all faith systems under “God,” it is important and significant to ask, “And, who is your God?”
The world is full of gods and things that are called god. So if we are going to love “God” with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind, wouldn’t it be important to make sure you are investing life in the one and only true God and not a pseudo God?
God himself thought so.
When this directive was given to the people of Israel at the end of Moses’ leadership, this God, the LORD God wanted to make sure the people knew there was NONE other they were to give the loyalty of their heart to. He was the LORD! The God of the covenant that promised the people of Israel a relationship with them through the coming Messiah. He was not only the faithful God he is “YOUR” God! He was and is personal. He desired to have a personal connection and relationship with every human being. He did not want our loyalties to be given to another.
Read the following and ask, “Is the LORD God the same as every other God?” (Deuteronomy 6:4-15)
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. 7 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. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
10 When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, 11 houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, 12 be careful that you do not forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
13 Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. 14 Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; 15 for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land.
God is being completely clear. Isaiah 42:8 “I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.
Before we ask how to love with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, today be reminded of TO WHOM you are giving this loyalty…the LORD…YOUR…GOD!
Apply: What gods tug at your heart for your love and loyalty (money, honor, reputation, relationships, etc.)? Be reminded of how much greater the LORD YOUR GOD is than anything and anyone else that can try to take the loyalty of your heart.
Prayer: Lord, my God, thank you for your faithful covenant of grace by which you have revealed yourself to me and made me the object of your love. I am honored to love you above all else. Help me each day to do just that! AMEN