“‘Because they love me,’ says the Lord.  I will rescue them; I will protect them, for they acknowledge my name.  They will call on me, and I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will deliver them and honor them.  With long life I will satisfy them and show them my salvation.” 

Psalm 91:14-16

One evening, I was driving home listening to worship music and looking at the sky.  It looked like a dark canvas with beautiful brush strokes across it.  I fell in absolute awe of God and the tears started to flow.  I kept thinking about how incredible it is that the God who drew the sky is the same God who is pursuing me.  The same God who created the heavens and the earth, also wants my heart and he loves ME.  The same God who put clouds in the sky, plants on earth, mountains in the land and stars in the sky, is the same God who knows every detail of my life and loves me. While it doesn’t make sense to me personally, why the same God who could literally raise someone from the dead would want a relationship with me, it’s also so humbling and beautiful to think he pursues and loves me. God has the power to do all things, yet he still chooses to love us because it is in his nature, it is God’s character.  

In meditating upon God’s character, I’ve realized that you can’t study God’s character without his love for us being revealed.  When you read stories about his wondrous works, it all comes back to love and how much he loves us to do what he’s done and still does for us.  God’s character is wrapped in love and it’s so evident throughout the scriptures.  You can’t know God and not know love. (1 John 4:8) Jesus’ number one commandment kept resounding in my head.  “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and with all your strength”. Mark 12:30 How does God telling us to love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength show his character?  

For one, think about what he’s asking for.  God isn’t asking for our time, our money, our possessions here on earth, he’s simply asking for us.  Not just part of us, but all of us. He first tells us to love the Lord our God with all our hearts.  God looks at the heart.  God doesn’t look at the outward appearance, but he looks inwardly, specifically at the heart. We see an example of this when God chose David to be the next king. “The Lord does not look at the things human beings look at.  People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7  We often think that we need to build up our resumes in life, qualify ourselves for God, the world and others… but that’s where we get it wrong.  The world tells us we need an impressive resume, God tells us he just wants our heart, a heart that longs for him.  We don’t need to impress God, God doesn’t look at us the way the world does.  God sees beyond what we could ever write down or change outwardly, he seeks our heart.  As God commanded, love the Lord your God with all your heart… we can remind ourselves of the simplicity of what He’s commanding.  We must love the Lord our God with all our heart.  

So we must love God with all our hearts, but what about the soul?  How do we know if we are loving God with all our soul?  We love God with all our soul through longing for God himself, through seeking him in prayer and through his Word.  God doesn’t just want a pure heart, but he wants pure prayer, which is exactly what Hannah did when longing for a child.  “In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly and she made a vow saying “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servants misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life.”  1 Samuel 10-11… the text later goes on to say “I am a woman who is deeply troubled…I was pouring out my soul to the Lord.  Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.” 1 Samuel 1: 15-16 Hannah, with all her soul and heart, cried out to the Lord and he remembered her.  Not only did God remember her, but He granted her a child.  God wants all of us, not just our hearts, but he wants our soul as well.  When we genuinely long for God, he can give us the desires of our heart, the desires of our soul. “Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.” Jeremiah 29:12-14 Hannah lived out that very verse.  She sought God with all she had and he remembered her.

In loving God with all of ourselves, we see that seeking God is an essential part of that equation.  We are reminded time and time again throughout the Bible that as we seek God and pursue his word, it does not come back void.  (2 Chronicles, 14:7, 2 Chron. 15:1-4, Psalm 34:4) So we seek God with all our heart, ask God to open our eyes and ears to his goodness and ways, so that we may fall in step with where he wants us.  As we seek, we will find.  Remember though, God wants all of us- so we must seek him with all of us- not just a half-hearted seeking. How much brighter is the moon when it is full vs. half?  How much brighter is the sun when the clouds aren’t covering it and it is a perfectly clear sky?  How much brighter is God in our lives when we open ourselves up to all of him, not just surrendering certain parts of our life?  God is light.  When we are living in the light, everything else is exposed.  When you turn on the light, you want the full benefits of seeing… you wouldn’t turn on a lamp to cover it with a towel.  The light exposes what’s happening in the darkness.  Jesus’ command to love him with all of us, with our heart, soul, mind, and strength opens us up to receiving his full light, not partial light.  “Your eye is the lamp of your body.  When your eyes are healthy, your whole body also is full of light.” Luke 11:34 Your whole body. All of you. What is God’s greatest commandment?  To love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength… all of us. Our full selves. When we love him with our full selves, we open ourselves up to receiving HIS full light.  David reminds us of this truth in Psalm 19:8, “The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.” Radiant means sending out light; shining or glowing brightly.  So if we follow in his commands, which are radiant, they will give light to our eyes, which are the lamp of our body, and in turn will then make us full of light.  And what is light?  “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5 

That’s who God is. God’s greatest commandment to love him with all our hearts, soul, mind and strength may sound prideful at first glance, but it’s exactly the opposite of pride.  God doesn’t need a single one of us to love him, he doesn’t need us at all, but he wants us.  He doesn’t tell us to love him with all of us because he needs it, he tells us to love him with all of ourselves because he knows WE need it.  God knows that in order to receive his full light, we must be careful to observe his laws and commands, to ensure we are protecting the gateway to what’s being received through our eyes. God commands us to love him because he loves us so much.  God knows that when we seek him, we will find Him.  He knows that when we find him, we receive (Psalm 37).  When we fix our eyes on Jesus through studying his word, our love for him grows and we see that his command is not prideful at all.  He just wants us to live in fullness of him, so we can receive fullness of life THROUGH him.  As we submit ourselves to Jesus and fix our eyes on Him, we can trust that he will help us with the rest. We must pursue God with all of us. 

Dr. David J. Fant Jr. once said, “to seek God does not narrow one’s life, but brings it, rather, to the level of highest possible fulfillment”.  

The culmination of God’s greatest commandment comes down to surrender, submission, humbling ourselves before the Lord.  When we love with everything we have, we are humbly giving every part of ourselves to God, the one who holds it altogether.  God wants our submission. God wants our devotion and he wants our trust.  When we trust him with our lives, with loving from everything we’ve got, we open ourselves up to receiving everything he can offer us- his life for ours. The highest possible fulfillment.