Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
Two things. That’s it. That is all that Jesus said was important. Love God. Love others. Sounds fairly simple, right? But for hundreds of years prior, Israel had struggled to really love God and to love others fully. They would try for a while and then fail miserably, over and over and over again.
Loving God and loving others sounds simple, but if we were completely honest, we would have to admit that we aren’t much different than the Israelites. We, too, struggle to really love God consistently…forget about loving others! But I think there is a reason the first thing Jesus tells us to do is to love God. Because when we work at really loving God, the loving others part gets a little easier. As we give more and more of our hearts to Him, the more of Him shines through us to the people around us. We can’t love others, without first loving God.
So do a heart check today. Start with loving God. How are you doing at loving God? Does He have first place in your life? Are you surrendered to Him and willing to let Him call the shots or are you still holding on for dear life grasping to maintain control? Don’t worry, we can probably all answer that we don’t always get it right and maybe we need to reset and ask God to forgive us…again. We are all in the same boat. But you can start again! Put Him first in your heart today. Let Him in and He’ll begin a work of love in you.
