Teacher, which kind of commandment is great and important (the principal kind) in the Law? .. And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect). [Deut. 6:5.] This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment.
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as [you do] yourself. [Lev. 19:18.] Mat 22:36-39
What is the human soul? It is the seat of our mind, emotions and will. Already I have a problem with loving God with all my soul in the surrender of my will. Why do we always have to struggle so hard with this when we know that God loves us and He does know better than us? His thoughts and ways are higher than ours and not so easily understood by human finite minds. It is so hard to relinquish our stubborn ways but the best example we have by far is Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.
Jesus did not want the cup of sin that He had to take upon Himself but He surrendered to the Father's will and I'm so glad that He did. Our eternity was hanging in the balance in the fight between Christ's will and that of His Father and the judgement that was to be placed on Jesus, the sinless one, was enormous, considering the weight of the world's sin. All His emotions were crying out to "pass the cup" and do it another way but Christ did not live for Himself, but purposely came to seek and to save sinners. His love for us and for His Father overcame all emotion and His own will to surrender and humble Himself on that cross. The way of surrender is the path of blessing. Look at what Christ accomplished for us the day He surrender totally to the Father's will and brought us with His blood. We get to spend eternity fellowshipping with the Triune God in Heaven and here on earth can have His guidance, love, protection, joy and peace.
I think to worship and love God with our emotions, is to have faith in Him, beyond what our emotions dictate to us. We honour God greatly when our emotions are telling us the opposite of what God has revealed in His Word to us, and we ignore what we see, feel or hear and hold stubbornly onto God's truth. The prophet Hababkuk taught us this principle when he penned in time of great disaster:-
Though the fig tree does not blossom and there is no fruit on the vines, [though] the product of the olive fails and the fields yield no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold and there are no cattle in the stalls,
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the [victorious] God of my salvation! [Rom. 8:37.]
The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds' feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]! Hab 3:17 - 19
Job too amidst his anguish and adversity declared:-
For I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives, and at last He [the Last One] will stand upon the earth. [Isa. 44:6; 48:12.]
And after my skin, even this body, has been destroyed, then from my flesh or without it I shall see God,
Whom I, even I, shall see for myself and on my side! And my eyes shall behold Him, and not as a stranger! My heart pines away and is consumed within me. Job 19:25 -27
Love explicitly trusts and we have a God who is faithful in all seasons of our lives. Because God is so trustworthy and the fountain head of all truth, we also honour Him and show our love for Him with our minds by "casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." (2Co 10:5)
We need to believe what God says about us in His Word and what He tells us we can do is simply possible even if past experiences dictate the opposite. We may believe from past experiences that we are unloved but God's word declares that He has loved us with an everlasting love and that His love for us is unfailing. This is exactly where we cast down those thoughts and replace them with the Word and thereby "renew our minds." We walk in the light and allow the Holy Spirit to shine the light on those things in us that separate us from the truth of who God is and what is not pleasing to Him. We love Him when we are prepared, with His help, to change and become more and more sanctified in our walk. We love Him when we show Him that we are willing to trust Him enough to visit those painful areas in our souls and let Him to do a work in us.
Let us spend the quality time with Him and not rush off into our day without having consulted Him for His plan and His will for the day. And let us put aside the distraction of the day and the entertainment of the TV at night to also spend some time with Him, reflecting on His goodness that has kept us and will continue to keep us day in and day out.
And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth. Col 3:2
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