February 20

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Deuteronomy 6:5-6

In nearly all of Deuteronomy, Moses instructs the people of Israel.  He reminds them of how God delivered them from Egypt and how He provided and cared for them the 40 years they were in the wilderness.  Moses tells them what is to come when they cross the Jordan and settle in the Promise Land.  He pleads with them to not forget the Lord their God and to seek Him wholeheartedly so that things will go well with them.  It is here in verse 5 that Moses gives the people the first and greatest command “to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

Moses is defining the quality and type of relationship God desired from the Israelites - and what relationship He desires from us.  The relationship is to be exclusive and total devotion to Him.  To the Hebrews, the heart was the place of will and intellect.  It was more than emotions.  To love the Lord their God with all their soul meant to love Him with their entire being - every fiber of their body.  The Israelites' very existence was to be focused on and oriented toward God.  Loving God with all their strength meant using every available thing they had to honor God.  It was “all in” honoring and loving God.  

The God who desired an exclusive relationship with the Israelites and total devotion from them, is the same God who desires this kind of relationship from us.  We are to love Him with all our heart, soul, and strength.  It’s not a half-hearted devotion or relationship.  We are not called to this when we feel like it or when things are going well.  This kind of relationship - this kind of love and devotion - with God is a 24/7/365 kind of relationship.  Seeking Him, serving Him, and being devoted only to Him is what He desires.  He’s after our heart.  He wants to change it.  Will you give your heart to Him?  Will you serve Him with all your heart, soul, and strength?

Father - You call us to love You with every fiber of our being.  You call us to love You with all of our heart, soul, and strength.  You call us to seek and serve You only.  We need Your help to do this.  Increase our desire to love You with everything we have and everything we do.  Thank You for loving us so much that You sent Your one and only Son to die for our sins.  In Your name we pray, Amen.