Daily Devotionals

Loving God With All of Our Strength

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“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: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31 

What we are taught in God’s “Greatest Commandment” is to love him with our all, our entire being – heart, soul, mind, and strength. When I focus on the strength part of the commandment, I think of physical strength. However, I think God wants us to love him with both physical and mental strength.

 We can physically and mentally show God we love him by:

  • obeying Him,
  • praising Him,
  • loving others in His name,
  • serving Him,
  • trusting Him, and 
  • thanking Him.

We should actively do these things not only when life is going smoothly and we’re getting our way, but also during the hard times when life is testing our faith. God gives us his supernatural strength to persevere in this fallen world, and we, in turn, can use that strength to love him completely with our hearts, souls and minds. As the Bible says, in 2 Samuel 22:33,It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.” How blessed we are to receive God’s strength and to be able to use it to love him.

Prayer:  Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the strength you give us.  Help us to use it to love you completely. Help us to use our physical and mental strength to love others and to further your kingdom. In your precious name we pray, Amen.

 

Submitted by Hannah Stiles