Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Loving God With Your Whole Heart

This was originally written for May 2016 Oakland Evangelical Free Church Newsletter.

In Matthew 22:37 we are told that the greatest commandment is to love God with our whole heart, soul and mind, which is really another way of saying love God with all of yourself. How many of you have ever completely lived this out at any time in your life? The truth is none of us have ever loved God with our whole heart, soul and mind, and therefore, God will continue to call us to love Him more completely. 

One area of loving God that I have noticed is particularly in need of growth for many of Christians concerns our emotions and inner thought life. You know those areas that are private and that you would never discuss with anyone. Perhaps they may even be areas that are so scary or painful that you do not even approach them.

Each one of us is different so our inner heart issues are going to be different. For one person it might be the abuse or neglect from a father that causes them not be able to really trust any authority. Someone else might be really struggling with a hidden addiction that they think would bring great shame on them or their family if they ever let anyone else know. Maybe you have a loveless or even hateful marriage, but you put on a good face in public because that is what you are “supposed to do.”

Others desire love and acceptance so much that they don’t have good personal boundaries, and unintentionally drive their would be friends away, while all the time inwardly screaming for love. Maybe you feel the need to please everyone (one of my issues), and therefore you have trouble saying no, which leads to you having no space in your life to even consider the state of your heart. Some people have an anger issues that seem outside of their control, and they explode in sinful ways at the slightest provocation. Perhaps because of past hurt or loss you are always melancholy and have trouble letting yourself feel anything.

All these things and many others are indications that we have places in our hearts that we have not fully surrendered to the Lord. Unfortunately, we are often unconscious of the real inner issues and so we never address them. They remain barriers to a closer walk with the Lord, to healthy relationships with other people, and personal peace and joy.

But have hope!  We do not need to remain trapped by our emotions and heart issues. Christ came to set us free from sin and its effects! Romansh 8:6 says "For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” The key to freedom in these areas is to let the life of the Spirit live in us, and then we will begin to see the fruit of the Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, take over us. 

Practically, what we need to do is take the faith step of asking the Lord to reveal to us the areas of our heart that need to be surrendered to Him. I like to pray Psalm 139:23-24 “ 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!
 Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!"

Secondly, God gave us the church for a reason. We need to find safe mature Christians who we can trust to confess our sins (James 5:16), and who we can trust enough to help us examine ourselves. Sometimes we have blind spots that we would not be willing to examine unless someone else helped challenge us (see Proverbs 27:6). 


If we are serious about loving God with all of ourselves, then let’s take the step of opening up our whole heart to His wonderful healing hand. He loves you enough that you can trust Him with the deepest parts of yourself.