With All Your Heart

 

One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, “Which commandment is the first of all?” Jesus answered, “The first is, ‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” Then the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher; you have truly said that ‘he is one, and besides him there is no other’; and ‘to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’ and ‘to love one’s neighbor as oneself,’—this is much more important than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” When Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” After that no one dared to ask him any question.


The greatest commandments are these: to love God will all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength; and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Now if these are the greatest commandments, then what are the greatest sins? Not to love God and not to love neighbor, right? That, itself, makes for some tremendous reflection, but I would like us to reflect upon something else.


Is it possible to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength? In short, to love God with everything we have? I would have not thought it possible were it not for the fact that God tells us to love him in the manner prescribed, and he wouldn’t tell us to do anything unless it was possible. So, it is possible. The question is: how?


A few days ago I spoke about a man called Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection. He served as a lay brother in a Carmelite monastery in Paris and is remembered for the intimacy he expressed concerning his relationship to God as recorded in a book compiled after his death. This book titled, The Practice of the Presence of God, offers some good suggestions on how we can love God with all our being.


It involves being in the presence of God at all times. Consider this: when you are in deep worship, how often do you find yourself tempted to sin? Seldom, I imagine. Why? Because you are deep in the presence of God. So what happens when we get out of this state? We return to the world with all its noise and temptation. But what if we could remain in the presence at all times?


Brother Lawrence discovered he could, and I have discovered that I can too, and it is truly amazing. It takes some practice to remain in the presence of God constantly, but with some patience—and a lot of grace, which flows powerfully if you try doing this—it won’t be long before you can do this. And you will realize that through this process you actually begin to love God with all your heart.


I will be leading people on a two week guided retreat shortly on cultivating this habit. If you are interested in being part of it, please send us a message saying: SubscribeRetreat.


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