Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. – Deuteronomy 6:4-5
Yesterday we looked at what it meant to love God with all our heart. Today we want to look at what it means to love God with all our soul. When the Bible talks about the soul it is usually referring to the life inside of us. In Genesis 2:7 it says that when the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground that “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being (literally “a living soul”).” So loving God with all our soul means we must love Him with all our life. We are so delighted in Him that we are willing to give ourselves entirely to Him!
By contrast, it often seems like the first and greatest commandment in our culture is to love ourselves. We are told that it is actually a prerequisite for loving others. But self-love pushes us to focus primarily on ourselves. As a result, we become so preoccupied with ourselves that we sometimes lose sight of God. We become the center of our world and as a result our problems, desires, challenges take on an exaggerated sense of importance. What’s worse, God is no longer the center of our lives and we are left to deal with things on our own.
Where has your focus been lately? Have you become preoccupied with yourself? Have the challenges of your life taken on an exaggerated sense of importance?
Yesterday we looked at what it meant to love God with all our heart. Today we want to look at what it means to love God with all our soul. When the Bible talks about the soul it is usually referring to the life inside of us. In Genesis 2:7 it says that when the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground that “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being (literally “a living soul”).” So loving God with all our soul means we must love Him with all our life. We are so delighted in Him that we are willing to give ourselves entirely to Him!
By contrast, it often seems like the first and greatest commandment in our culture is to love ourselves. We are told that it is actually a prerequisite for loving others. But self-love pushes us to focus primarily on ourselves. As a result, we become so preoccupied with ourselves that we sometimes lose sight of God. We become the center of our world and as a result our problems, desires, challenges take on an exaggerated sense of importance. What’s worse, God is no longer the center of our lives and we are left to deal with things on our own.
Where has your focus been lately? Have you become preoccupied with yourself? Have the challenges of your life taken on an exaggerated sense of importance?
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