Loving God with All Your Heart

Loving God with All Your Heart

Mark 12:30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
I have heard this verse often quoted, but I never took the time to sit down and study it out and apply it to my life.  In the next several devotionals, I plan to take a closer look at each of the elements in this great commandment.
Vine¹s Expository Dictionary emphasizes that the heart has to do with our character---the hidden part of us.  1 Peter 3:4 speaks of this in regards to how a wife should conduct herself.  "But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price."  Peter says in the previous verses that our adornment isn¹t to be what people see outwardly, but that our adornment should be in the part of us that is hidden from view.  

I believe that when we love God with our whole heart, it will spill over into our day to day living and others will see it outwardly.  But we mustn¹t get the cart in front of the horse like so many do, and strive for an outward show of commitment and love to God only.  It must come from the heart.  I believe that is why we have such an epidemic of sexual sins taking place among church leaders and other religious groups these days.  They have forgotten that their actions spring from what is in their hearts.  "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:" (Matthew 15:18)

How can we love God with our whole heart?  Who are you when no one is looking?  What do you dream about, think about and do when you are alone?  This is what your character is.  God not only wants us to love Him in the things we do or say when we are with our church friends or in the public eye, He wants our inner most being---the hidden person to be fully committed to Him.  Our commitment to love and obey Him should spring from a heart that loves Him wholly, not just for outward show, but even when no one sees.

Dear Father, These are hard hitting thoughts.  Church rules of conduct can make us conform outwardly, but only You can conform our hearts to the image of Jesus Christ as we yield to You.  Help us to not be like the Pharisees who Jesus called whitewashed sepulchresŠclean on the outside but filthy on the inside.  In Jesus¹ Name, Amen.