Passage
Mark 12:28-34 (NLT)
Reflection
Today’s church message was on Mark 12:28-34 where a scribe asked Jesus, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Jesus response was to quote Deuteronomy 6:4-5,
“4 Listen, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.
5 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.”
Jesus followed by stating in Mark 12:31,
“The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
What does is mean to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength? Interesting that the Deateronomy passage does not include “mind” yet Jesus includes it in the Mark passage. I’m particularly intrigued by how Christ appears to start with the most important - the heart - and then concludes with our strength. Our love for Him must first start with our heart. One of the people at the service today prayed, asking that God would “circumsize our hearts.” This really resonated with me - the idea being to seek for God to soften our hearts.
Prayer
God, please circumsize my heart. Please soften it. Give me the desire to love you with all of me. Give me the desire to always keep you first in my life. Amen.
Tags: [love, love your neighbor, New Testament, Bible, RWRW]