Love the Lord Your God

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:37-39

What an amazing exchange this is between Jesus and a scholar of the law! The Pharisee tests Jesus with the ultimate question: "Which is the first of all the commandments?" 

And Jesus gives the answer that we should love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength. And Jesus adds that "The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these”

To me this shows that sometimes we make faith too complicated. We should just go back to the basics of what God wants from us. Basically it is a heart issue. God wants our heart. He wants us to be like little children who desire nothing less than to love Him and to love others as well. After all, is this not what anyone who loves desires? To be loved in return?

Father, may I see Your love for me for what it truly is- all-encompassing, all forgiving, all accepting! Your loving kindness and graciousness can never be measured. May I love You with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, and with all my strength. And may I see my neighbor through your loving eyes, so I may love him too!