How to Love God With All Your Strength

Mark 12:30 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."

Loving the Lord with all our strength is the final way Jesus himself commands us to love Him.

1 John 3:18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.

To love the Lord with all our strength means to love him "exceedingly," "richly," "lavishly," with reckless abandon through simple devotion.

Loving Him with all our strength is to love the Lord with our resources, our abilities, and our time. To fully love Him with what we find our hands to do, our eyes to see, our ears to hear, our feet to go, and our mouths to speak.

1. Love Him with what we find our hands to do.

We are to serve the Lord diligently, being His hands extended to our world. We love Him by giving a cup of cold water to those in need (Matt. 10:42). By feeding the poor. By laying hands on the sick. By lifting our hands in worship. By playing an instrument. By writing an article. By working our jobs with excellence. The list can go on and on. Our hands serve a significant purpose in loving God with all our strength.

2. Love Him with our eyes and what they see.

The eyes are the gateway to the heart. We are made to gaze on His beauty (Ps. 27:4), to fix our eyes on Jesus, the author, and finisher of our faith (Heb. 12:2). Our eyes come in contact with so much during the day, yet we love Him well when we see what pleases Him. We become what we behold.

3. Love Him with ears to hear.

Jesus said many times, "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." Kind of a funny statement but a powerful one. What He is saying is listen to be transformed. Listen to be changed. Listen for more than information; listen for revelation. When we gain access to His voice, we love Him well. Listen to others share their story, hear their thoughts, and hear their pain. Walk away from gossip, slander, backbiting, and negative discussions.

4. Love Him with feet to go.

Where our feet take us on the journey in life says a lot about how we love the Lord. Jesus laid it out when he said to "go and make disciples" (Matt. 28:19). The great commission is about going. When we go and serve, go to church, go to a friend in need, go the extra mile, we love Him with all our strength. Be led by the Spirit, and let Him lead you into amazing places and divine opportunities.

5. Love Him with our mouth to speak.

May the words we say bring glory to the Lord. When we edify, encourage, comfort, honor, support, and bring life (Prov. 18:21) to others with our words, we create access for them to discover God's kindness. When we worship and declare His praise, when we boldly share our faith with others (Eph. 6:19) and when we instruct, coach, and counsel others, it all counts in loving the Lord with all our strength by what we say.

What a privilege we have to love the Lord with all our strength, with a reckless abandon expressed in a sold-out life.

Until Next Time.

- P. Greg

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