All In On All Three

Jesus replied,“‘You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’
In Deuteronomy the Israelites were given a prayer that Jewish people today recite.  Videos on Youtube show this prayer being broadcast over loudspeakers over the Old City portion of Jerusalem.  The Shema Yisrael or שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל‎.  Shema is found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9.  This prayer is one of the very basic premises of Judaism.  Jesus was not telling these experts in the Jewish law anything that they were not already aware of.  In their religious zeal they would speak this prayer every morning and every evening.  But, it seems that these religious experts were missing the point.
The Shema calls out three elements of man to love God completely:  heart, soul, and mind.  We are to love God with our heart which is where the spirit resides, a spiritual, supernatural place.  Great!  What does that mean?  The old covenant recognized that a spiritual relationship with God begins from within, with a proper disposition toward the preeminent Savior, sovereign, and satisfier. From the heart “flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23), and without one’s will, desires, passions, affections, perceptions, and thoughts rightly aligned, the life of love is impossible.
In the first five books of the Old Testament the “soul” refers to one’s whole being as a living person, which includes one’s “heart,” but is so much more. For example, in Genesis 2:7 we are told that “Yahweh God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living [soul] creature” (Genesis 9:5).  The Shema starts with a call to love God from within and then moves one step larger saying that everything about us as a person is to declare Yahweh as Lord.  So we are to love God with our passions, hungers, perceptions, and thoughts. But we are also to love him with how we talk, and what we do with our hands, and how we utilize our talents, and how we react to challenges — our entire being is to display that we love God.
There are several components to intellectual love for God.  Dedicating our minds to knowing him.  Thinking clearly and truly about him so that we don't have false ideas in our minds.  Not being satisfied with merely an intellectual awareness of his attributes, character, and acts but intentionally devoting that mental effort to serve the affections (emotions) for God.  If a person doesn't move from intellectual awareness of God and right thinking about God to an emotional embrace of God, he hasn't loved God with his mind. The mind has not yet loved until it hands off its thoughts to the emotions where they're embraced. And then the mind and the heart are working in what feels like such harmony, and you experience it as both intellectual and affectional love for God.  To love God with our mind which is through gaining of understanding or thought process; via the Holy Spirit.  (Romans 12:2)
The LORD does not want just our flesh, our emotions, or our thoughts.  He wants all of us.  Soup to nuts.  That is the love God desires of us.  Our everything.
  1. What area of your life do you hold on to?
  2. What can you do today to begin to release this to God in love?

--Zine Smith

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Comfort Trap

Image
'One person dies in prosperity, completely comfortable and secure, the picture of good health, vigorous and fit. Another person dies in bitter poverty, never having tasted the good life. But both are buried in the same dust, both eaten by the same maggots.' Job 21:23-26 One of my favorite music groups of all time is a little-known group, House of Heroes .  I had them in for a fundraising concert several years ago.  Early in the show, they performed one of my favorite songs;  The Comfort Trap .  Here are just a few words from that song: I'm gonna get nice things and get my way Even if it means there's hell to pay I'm gonna have my cake and eat it too And what I don't eat I'm gonna force feed you I'm not looking for consolation Maybe I can settle for compensation Have my cake and eat it too And if it's all a lie, I'm gonna say it's all true It seems to be a universal state of our world that if what we think is a l
Read more

People of Vision

Without revelation, people run wild, but one who follows divine instruction will be happy. Proverbs 29:18 I have had excellent vision for most of my life.  My sight was better than 20/20.  When I was in late high school, I was told by my optometrist that I was going to have a hard time as I got older.  I asked, "Why?"  He said, "Your eyesight is going to get worse as everyone's does.  You're going to think you need glasses, but no optometrist is going to give you eyeglasses for 20/20 sight."  My vision didn't last as long as I would have liked due to MS.  I now see an ophthalmologist annually which I visited this past week.  They have the worst games!  "One or two?"  "Which line can you read?"  "Better or worse?"  Augh!  If I could see well I would tell them?  Isn't that why I went to the eye doctor?  To correct my vision that I know is flawed?  And my eyes are fine.  My eye shape and lenses are excellent.  My problem
Read more

Death Precedes Life

Image
"So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.” But when Jesus heard about it he said,“Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, he stayed where he was for the next two days." John 11:3-6   Author Henry James said, "Life is a predicament that precedes death." The caterpillar appears to be a full animal. It eats on leaves. It crawls around and tries to avoid being eaten by birds and other predators. From a passing glance, the caterpillar appears complete. From an anthropomorphized view, the caterpillar thinks itself complete. We know that the caterpillar is but a butterfly pupae; an immature form. It is nothing like what it will be. The caterpillar must go through a metamorphosis that resembles death. The outer-layer dies forming a chrysalis that inside the butterfl
Read more