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Matthew 22:38 NLT
‘This is the first and greatest commandment.’
Over recent days we’ve looked at how Jesus commands us to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. He describes this as ‘The greatest and first commandment’, because until and unless we have surrendered the gatekeepers to our lives, our heart, soul and mind to God, we are in no position to live effectively under God’s authority.
Of course, there are moments of ‘godly behaviour’. Yet these are sporadic responses to the urge to love and serve God that is a consequence of choosing to follow God. However, the core principle is that I surrender my very self to God and turn the whole of who I am over into God’s hands. This doesn’t happen without a fight since my fallen self makes many stands resisting both the will and way of God.
As we walked through the valley of the shadow of death with Katey’s MS, I consistently reacted to the pain and disappointment. My first thought was never to surrender to God’s way. My heart grew bitter, my soul was conscious of our sacrifice and its isolating nature, my mind filled with angry thoughts that expressed themselves through unacceptable behaviours. My own pain, anger and bitterness determined who I was; it also crafted a negative view of God. The last place I sought was that of prayer and contemplation. I was invigorated by my complaint as the gatekeepers to my life consistently told me I was hard done by, was rejected and abandoned by God, encouraged me to take it out on others and in the process damage myself to the point of destruction.
That journey very nearly led to my complete implosion, but it was God’s way of leading me into a deeper understanding of who I was, of the nature of relationship with God, and introduced me to the reality of my life’s gatekeepers. In pain I learned the need to surrender heart, soul and mind to God. Recognising the need only set me on a path which itself was long and winding. Learning the practice of surrender was challenging at every step.
QUESTION: Take time to review whether you could honestly say you love God with all your heart, mind and soul.
PRAYER: Father God, I surrender again to you my heart, my soul, my mind, my will.
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