Friday Nurturing Content - 02/09/24

Happy Friday, Friend!

I hope that your February is off to a great start!

Last week, I mentioned that we are in a new theme this month. All throughout February, we’ll be learning what it means to love God and love others.

Mark 12:30 says:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

What does it mean for you to love Him with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength?

Are we even capable of such a thing as sinful human beings?

I’m inclined to say no. But, it’s okay. God knew this about us—that our capacity for love is ever-fleeting and so often founded on our feelings rather than our deep knowledge of Him. And so, He provided us with help.

1 John 4:19 says:

“We love because He first loved us.”

Without God’s original love for us, we are incapable of loving anyone, not even Him! God doesn’t just love us, He is the embodiment of love (v. 16). Everything that God does for us and says to us is an outpouring of His love for us—from our very creation to the sacrificial death of His son, Jesus, for our sins.

Once we accept His payment for our sins, we open ourselves to a relationship with Him. Our heart responds to Him and we receive Him as our Savior. We then begin to love Him with the same love He’s infused into us.

Let’s look at all the different ways the Bible tells us to love God wholly.

With All Your Heart

Oftentimes, thanks to popular culture, when we think of the heart, we automatically are inclined to think about feelings and emotions. However, the heart also includes our mind, will, and conscience. Our thoughts, decisions, and that sense of guilt that we feel when we’ve done something wrong all arise from our heart.

God created us with a heart so that we would love Him wholly and absolutely. But, because of our sinful nature, our hearts oftentimes love many other things besides God and, sometimes, even in place of God.

The apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:15-16:

“A veil lies on their heart; but whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”

When our hearts are turned away from the Lord, our hearts become veiled. This means that the focus of the heart is on things like sins, selfish preoccupations, and worldly pleasures. We cannot see the Lord nor experience His goodness and love.

But, when we turn our heart to Him, the veil falls, and we can spiritually see again. We see His beauty, His virtues, and His wonderful love for us. The more of God that we see and experience, the more we love Him with our hearts.

With All Your Soul

Our soul is actually a large part of our heart. It consists of our mind, emotion, and will. Our soul is meant to express God but, due to our sinful nature, we oftentimes use the soul to express our own selves. We are full of our own opinions, feelings, and decisions that are, oftentimes, independent of God. God, sadly, becomes an afterthought.

Similarly to what happens to our hearts when we turn to God, our souls experience the same kind of growth. The more God infuses of Himself into us, the more our thoughts, feelings, and decisions become not our own. His thoughts become our thoughts. His feelings become our feelings. His decisions become our decisions.

God’s transformative work within us allows us to not only express Him but glorify Him as well.

With All Your Mind

Our souls are led by our mind. The mind directs our being and influences what we love and what we choose. We can set our mind on many things. But God’s ultimate desire for us is to set our mind on the Holy Spirit.

“For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.” Romans 8:6

When we set our mind on the flesh (or things of this world), we eventually become lifeless and uneasy because we’re turned away from God. But when we set our mind on our spirit, we’re full of peace and full of life. By setting our mind on our spirit, our whole being is focused on God.

With All Your Strength

Our whole strength refers to the physical aspect of our mortal bodies. When we turn our hearts to the Lord and set our mind on the Holy Spirit, our bodies will naturally follow.

The things that occupy our time, interest, and energy are direct evidence of how much—or how little—we love our God with our strength. When we love the Lord, we want more of Him. More time in the Word. More time in prayer. More time in godly fellowship and community. All our physical strength is spent on pursuing Christ.

I leave you with this prayer:

“Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your deep love for us. Thank You for loving us so much that You allowed Your son to die a sacrificial death on our behalf. Thank You for constantly searching us out and wanting to commune with us. We ask that you help us to love You in return with our whole being. Help us to love You more today than we did yesterday. In Your precious name, amen.”

Dedicated to your success,

Tam

P.S. Have you started the Monthly Challenge yet? Use this email to help guide you in writing your first love letter assignment as you write to God. Show Him how you love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, & strength!