“Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today. Repeat them again and again to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead as reminders. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9 NLT
The same words are echoed throughout both the Old and New Testaments, found in Matthew 22:37, Luke 10:27, Mark 12:30 and 33, Deuteronomy 30:6, Deuteronomy 10:12.
God’s serious about this.
So while I focus on Matthew 22:37-39 as an important verse for the discipleship movement in my church, it’s Deuteronomy 30:6 that resonates personally within me, “And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.”
In transparency, I got to a place in my own walk and ministry when I realized that I didn’t know “how” to love God with all my strength… “strength” being a strong and hefty word for me. When I think of “strength” it connotes tightening every muscle, every grip I have, every effort inside me…and wow, I fell short. It wasn’t due to my will, at least I didn’t think so, because I “wanted” to, but it was really that in my own human effort, I fell short. So I prayed, and confessed, and repented and prayed more, one of the most simple prayers I’ve ever prayed, “Lord, show me how to love you in a way You deserve. I don’t know how.”
I wanted to love God with a love that He was worthy of. My love was conditional… dependent on emotions, circumstances, time of day, distractions, reactions… and it surfaced in how I loved others.
Deuteronomy 30:6 though, promised me…He circumcises our hearts so that I can love Him with all my heart and soul. It was His cutting of the heart, then cleaning, tremendous grace, and the Holy Spirit interceding for me, through which, when I brought my “heart problem” to the Throne, God changed me and showed me a whole new level of love that I never would have known if I tried to do it on my own in my strength. Surely I loved Him before all that, but not at the level HE deserved and others around me deserve too.
I still have to confess and repent this same prayer continually, it was not a one-time fix. But God showed me a different dimension of love. When I ask for it, I get it to give back to Him, and then He reciprocates tenfold. It’s become not just a love relationship but a fire I crave. He is the furnace that ignites it.
Here’s a thought to ponder:
Do you think sometimes your obedience issues could really just be a love issue… that if you learned how to love God more, you’d obey more?