Love the Lord
"'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"
Luke 10:27
How do we know if we love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength? We can have in our minds the thought of how much we love the Lord, but we live out of our hearts. If we love the Lord as given in this verse, it must be in our hearts because love drives our thoughts and actions.
If you love me, keep my commands. (John 14:15) We serve the Lord because he took our sins to the cross. If we obey his commands through the Spirit, we will be a Light in this world pointing souls to Christ. As we continue to be Light in this world, God pours his unconditional love into our hearts. We continue to tell people about Christ, it becomes our life, and our life is now centered on Christ and others. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20) We are now free and we live for Christ telling people the good news of Christ our Savior.
I have set the Lord continually before me; Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken. (Psalm 16:8 NASB) Serving the Lord, being a Light in this world makes us dependent on the Lord being with us and drives us into the Word and into fellowship with other Christians. The power of our ministry is in the Word and Christ being with us. We now pray every day that Christ is with us and that he will guide us to minister to others. Telling people about Christ consumes us and becomes the reason we live.
The Love in our hearts connects us to God. As we serve the Lord by being a Light in this world, we become more dependent on the Lord. We spend more time in prayer being thankful to God and asking for boldness in our ministry. We spend more time in the Word because it is the language of God, and it is the power of our ministry.
Our hearts have changed, and God will continue changing our hearts until our last breath. With a heart of love, we desire to be with the Father and the Son. We depend on them to guide us through each day and into our eternal home. The closer we are to the Father and the Son, the more we desire to be with them in Heaven. Our motivation to be in Heaven with Father and Son can become very powerful in our hearts. We will know that we love the Lord with all heart, soul, mind, and strength, when we live to serve him, and we desire to be with him.
Today, live to serve Christ, and pray for the opportunity to tell someone about Christ. This will become the desire of your heart, and the Lord will fill your heart with more unconditional, sacrificial love.
Prayer: Lord, guide me to be a Light in this world and to reflect Jesus to everyone with a heart filled with your unconditional love and compassion. In Jesus’ name, Amen.