Jesus answered, "The most important is, 'Hear, O Israel:
The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall 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: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There
is no other commandment greater than these."
Mk.12:28-31
Many when they hear these words, hear commandment. DO THIS!
It is the Shema after all, the affirmation of God above all things. Yet, have you ever stopped to consider the
depth of what Jesus is saying here, that is THE greatest thing of all the
Bible? LOVE….yes, simple word, yet deep.
How much do you love life, eating, breathing? Jesus states that our love for
God should be more. Not just kind of
love him, He wants you to love him passionately. ALL of your heart, all your
soul, all your mind, and all your strength. God doesn't want to just be in your
head. He wants an integral, deep, emotional relationship with you.
This isn’t difficult
to understand, when we comprehend that just because God is a Spirit (Jn.4:24)
does not mean that God has no emotions. Read the scripture and you will see it
is replete of descriptions of God’s feeling joy, grief, pain, and hatred toward
sin and many other things. He gets frustrated with people, feels joy,
compassion, pity….and the deepest of all love
Your ability to feel is a gift from God. The ability to
love, create, be faithful and loyal, kindness, generosity are all emotions that
are attached to the good things in life. While emotions may not always seem
like a gift, but even the negative ones have a purpose. In this, as with all
things, there are some things that we need to learn to avoid. Emotionalism is the extreme of saying the only
thing that matters in life is how you feel. This view is very egocentric, where
everything is based on you. Everything in life is based on your emotions
without thought of intent or basis of faith. Yes, God wants us to feel, because
He feels. Yet, it is not how we feel that is to control our lives. That is why
Jeremiah states,, “I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that
it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.” (Jer 10:23). If left to myself and my emotions – I would self-destruct.
Man does not have that capacity within himself. That is why we need a compass, to point the
right direction, give the right wisdom, and share the right advice (Psa.119:105;
Jn.17:17; Rom.10:17; 2 Tm.3:16,17).
On the other hand, to go all Mr.Spock from Star Trek and obsess
on stoicism is equally bad. To say feelings aren't important at all, and the
only thing that matters is your intellect and your will is to ignore the fact
that faith while based on verity of testimony of scripture, is an emotional
response. It is the answer of the
conscience in response to what God has put before the soul (1 Pet.3:21). Paul reminds us, “For with the heart one believes and is
justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” (Rom 10:10). Did you
notice the progression? When the heart
is convinced and believes, the mouth cannot keep from confessing. Why? Because
it is the emotional response! Some
Christians have decided that it doesn't really matter how you feel and downplay
emotions. That’s not right. God gave you your emotions for a reason, and he
wants you to worship him emotionally — with all your heart and all your mind.
All of you…that is what God wants. Including your knowledge
and your emotions. He doesn't want one over the other…He wants them BOTH! Are you giving them to God?
Jim
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