Mark 12: 28-31~ “Then one of the scribes came up and listened to them disputing with one another, and noticing that Jesus answered them fitly and admirably, he asked Him, Which commandment is first and most important of all?
Jesus answered, The first and principal one of all commandment is: Hear, O Israel, The Lord our God is on Lord: And you shall love the Lord your God out of and with your whole heart and out of and with all your should and out of and with all your mind and out of and with all your strength. This is the first and principal commandment. (Deut 6:4,5)
The second is like it and is this, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.
Loving God… it sounds so easy. I can ask my children, ” Do you love God?”, and they will answer, ” Yes,Momma.” They will mean it, too. In their limited understanding they will believe they know what love is. Yet, in their limited understanding, their concept of love is flawed. They often base their love on what someone does for them. And when they reciprocate that love, how does it show? I have to ask myself the same thing. ” Do I love God? ” and ” How does it show?”
What ( or who) do we reflect in our loving?
Love the Lord, first. It is a command, Love God. Love him, first. It is a command with conditions. Love Him with all your mind, and all your soul, and all your heart, even committing your body as a living sacrifice. But we can not do this in our own will for we are faulty to perform the task.
We can love only as we see His Love meet us and change us.
Love the Lord your God, He is the only God. Out of His abundant love, which flows as a spicket that does not close, continually flowing in full abundance; out of this abundance will stream Living Water capable of thirst-quenching power.
In response, we will thirst for more of Him. Jesus promised the woman at the well that she could drink of a water that would quench her thirst. I believe it was meant as answer for the need to be loved, but I also believe that when we drink of the life-giving-liquid He pours into us, that we will have a desire to be filled more and more with what He offers. That thirst for the world will die; the thirst for more of Him will explode within us.
Once we get a taste of this love, we continue to look for it, seeking Him first. ( Matt 6;33). This love enables us to love, not only to love but to give that love in abundance with no expectation of return.
Do you live life in expectation? Do you require a payment for the deposit you make in others? Or do you choose to plant a seed and let the Lord tend the harvest?
It is not an easy thing to do; live life with no expectations of others. Yet, I wonder if we choose to look only to God as our source for all things, giving and receiving, would we then expand our boundaries to love rather the restrict our fences by hedged in expectations.
We don’t need a return on our deposit when we are constantly hooked up to the source of truth and grace, the Love Source which beckons near for the express purpose of relationship.
Cross-Reflecting Relationships are balanced.
When our relationships reflect the Cross, our life will spill forward a blessing. Our heavenly Father gives us gifts of mercy to bestow so others may know, perceive, and understand what we already have come to see.
When our vertical relationship is aligned; our horizontal relationships will have prosperity and right perspective.
Love God first….then out of that abundance… Love Others.
Love the Lord your God , first, with all your heart, strength, mind and soul & out of that love your relationships will bloom.
This week take time to meditate on Mark 12:28-31. From there go to Deuteronomy 6:4-9 . Each section of scripture reminds us to Love God first. Out of this act of submission and reverence we become changed into the image of Christ, reflecting the Love He so willingly gives to us. As vessels who must be filled, we then pour forth into others the substance which replaces the emptiness in our soul.
- Journal what you have learned and begin to pray for those who the Lord has put on your heart to reach out to in love.
Think of the Cross and the way our lives can reflect the image of perfect love, which casts out all fear. He loved us so much that he came to earth, to show us the way to the Cross, stretching wide the arms of grace to receive us in an eternal embrace. This love filters through and bleeds into the lives of all we willingly introduce to His gift.
- What new revelation has He shown you in your prayer time this week?
Download this Loving God pdf to help you journal your discoveries.
