One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’. No other commandment is greater than these.” Mark 12:28-31 (NLT)
In Part 1 of this blog I acknowledged that this is one of the hardest commandments for me to follow. The two words that make it the hardest are love and all. In the previous blog we looked at truly loving God intimately and personally, loving not just the idea of God. In this blog we’ll examine loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.
First fruits or leftovers?
The challenge for me is loving God with ALL my heart, strength, soul and mind. I like to love God with some of my heart, strength, soul and mind; as long as I am not too inconvenienced. I’ll take care of my desires first and see if there is anything left over for God. Most of the time, God gets my leftovers not my first fruits. I’ll go to church on Sunday morning as long as there is nothing more important to do. Unfortunately, many times something more important is just an excuse to not attend worship. It really could wait to later. I went to church last Sunday, why do I have to go again this Sunday? I already went to church this morning; I can’t go back for an evening activity. I need some “me” time. I can’t give anything extra for God’s work until I buy (fill in the blank). I’ll throw a little something in the offering plate but I’m not going to give up something that I want. The preacher had better not be too long-winded today and make me miss the start of the football game.
What would we do if God gave us back the same excuses when we go to Him for help? “Sorry, I already helped you last week so I couldn’t possibly help you this week.” “Sorry, I am just too busy running the universe so you are on your own for this one.” “Sorry, I am tired and just need some me time so figure it yourself.” “Come back next week, that works better for me.”
Why do we think that we can ignore God, give Him our leftovers and then expect Him to immediately help us when we are in trouble? It doesn’t work that way in my human relationships. If I ignore people and only contact them when I want something, they usually are not very responsive. I get labeled as an “user” who only shows up when I want something. If I am honest with myself, I believe that for the majority of my Christian life God would call me an “user”.
So, how do we love the Lord our God with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength? It is a matter of priority. We need to put pleasing God at the top of our to do list and not something we’ll get to if there is enough left over time. We have to invest in the relationship. We have to share our deepest joys and concerns with God. We have to value the friendship with God for itself, not for what God can do for us. We don’t use God. It is really that simple. Spend time with God. Be honest with God. Learn how to listen to God. The more you invest in your friendship with God, the deeper it becomes and the easier it becomes to spend time with Him.
Spending Time with God
The practice of spending consistent quality time with God can be hard to establish because we have to change old habits and attitudes. We have got to step back from the chaos of our lives. In my own experience, I have learned that when I skip my prayer time with God because I am too busy then the day usually turns into a disaster. When I start my day with God, no matter how busy the day is going to be, it just goes smoother and things work out. Meetings get cancelled. Problems aren’t as big and don’t take as much time to solve. Starting the day with God reduces my stress level. Starting the day without God usually sends it through the roof.
It is easy to get so busy that we think there is no time for prayer. However, it was not like that for Jesus. No matter how busy Jesus got, He never gave up prayer.
But despite Jesus’ instructions, the report of his power spread even faster, and vast crowds came to hear him preach and to be healed of their diseases. But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. Luke 5:15-16 (NLT)
Many great Christians, including Martin Luther, followed the example of Jesus. When their work increased, they increased their time spent in prayer. Unfortunately, others do the opposite, cease praying and lose God’s power in their lives and ministries. The more pressure that life puts on us, the more time we must spend in prayer because our strength for the day comes from God. We must spend quality time with God, not just check off prayer as a task on our “to do” list. We can’t race through our prayer time because we have to get started on the work of the day. I have to be away from my computer and cell phone to have quality prayer time. If they are present then I’ll stop praying to see what every beep was about and get distracted. I’m ashamed to admit but many mornings I have to see what happened in my favorite comic strip before I start praying. Imaging saying that to a visitor, “I have to check out this comic strip and then I’ll be able to spend time with you.” I have access to the creator of the universe who loves me more than I can imagine, yet it is more important to check on the antics of a fictional character in a comic strip. That is just stupid on my part.
Once we begin to value talking with God, it becomes easy to follow the admonition in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “never stop praying.” I have developed the habit of talking with God throughout the day. I’ll ask for advice and guidance before phone calls and meetings. I’ll ask for help during phone calls and meetings. I’ll ask for stress free travel. I’ll ask for help finding a parking space. There is nothing too small to take to God. Most importantly, I’ll give thanks when that help comes. An excellent time to pray is when driving (just don’t close your eyes.) Turn the radio off and talk with God as if He was sitting in the passenger seat. Spend time in silence listening for those little nudges from the Holy Spirit. When we get serious about prayer, it is amazing the little snippets of time that are available during the day.
If you would like to explore this topic in more detail, please check out my book, More Than Words.
Thank you for taking the time to read this blog. I welcome any comments.
Larry
Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004,2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.