I was working on my WDW (weigh down workshop) workbook yesterday, studying the notes listed from the video and looking up the scriptures listed. I came to Mark 12:29-31 when the Holy Spirit began to teach me.
29And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:
30And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.
31And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
I have been a Christian for 37 years and as you can imagine, I am very familiar with this scripture. I even made a song out of verse 30 for my children when they were little. But yesterday the Lord brought somethings to my attention in order to make some "course corrections" in my life and I wanted to share them with you.
The first thing that He brought to my attention was that this is a commandment and not just any commandment but the FIRST commandment. AND this is from Jesus Himself! So I began to wonder, what would this look like in my life. What would it look like to love the Lord with ALL my heart, ALL my mind, ALL my soul, and ALL my strength? I pondered this for a few moments and then decided to move on to the next verses in the list. The list actually had Romans 8:2, 5-8 but Romans 8:5 hit me.
5For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
It was at this point that I decided to stop and think about my day. I began to specifically think about the evening hours, from dinner until bed. I asked myself how I spend those hours. I realized that my evening hours are spent with my family and entertainment. We are talking about 5 hours every evening. Does that show Mark 12:30? I had to admit that it did not, much to my shame. I was focusing my evening hours on the flesh and not the Spirit. Then Romans 8:8 says that those that are in the flesh cannot please God. Oh! I really want to please God! Needless to say, I have decided to make some changes.
So, with all that in mind, I challenge you to inspect your day. Does it show that you love the Lord with ALL your heart, soul, mind, and strength? Would others see your life and know that you love God by the things you do and the way you spend your time?
Blessings,
Michele ºÜº
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