When Jesus was asked what the greatest command was, he quoted Deuteronomy 6:5,
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all of your soul and with all of your mind” (Matt 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27). Jesus is quoting from the prayer called the Shema. They pray this prayer every morning and evening, when they leave the house, get home, walking down the road, and some even literally bind it on their foreheads and wrap it around their arms. What does it mean to love God with everything that you are in every capacity?
We all come to Christ by the same means of grace, but we are all wired differently. Not only do we have different talents used to build up the community (Rom 12; 1 Cor. 12) but we each connect with God in different ways. Our tendency sometimes is to evaluate other’s spirituality based on how we best express our love for God. The beauty of the church is the variety of people we have in it. We all bring something to the table and each encourages the other to grow in areas of spirituality where growth is needed. Take a moment to read Hebrews 10:19-25. We spur one another on towards good deeds. We meet together on a regular basis so that we might encourage one another to love God with all that we are in every capacity in our lives.
Spend some time this week thinking about how love is expressed to God. What does that look like? What does fullness in how love is expressed to God? What does a balanced life look like in expressing love for God? I want to come back to these questions throughout the year in some shorter series but this Sunday I want to talk a bit about what balance of the spiritual life looks like in how we interact with God. Send me some of your responses to these questions. I’d love to hear your feedback!
Luke paints an ideal picture of what the church looks like in Acts 2:42-47. How do you see the early Christians loving God with all of their being? Make a list of what you see in this passage. Examine your own life, where are some areas where you aren’t connecting with God?