v 37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’
My guess is that you have a pretty good idea of what it means to love the Lord with all your heart. It is a matter of your affections, your desires to know Him more and appreciate Him more fully. (You can probably express that better than I have!) Not quite so straightforward however when it comes to loving Him with all your soul – after all, what on earth is my soul? We might have a vague idea that it is some spiritual part of me, or even the whole of me that makes me ME.
So how will you be able to love God with all your mind? What was Jesus driving at? I feel He was urging people to love God in the way they organise their thoughts. It is a process of learning to see God’s love in action rather than human frailty and sinfulness. It is a positive thought process rather than a negative reaction to events going on around us. It is training the mind to view life through the lens of love more often than focussing on the bad and hurtful events that fill the TV News. It is the mind-set that sees the loving care and compassion of neighbours in times of disaster rather than the fallen trees and broken power lines. It is a mind characterised by love from God expressed through people rather than the selfishness of vandals and the violence of natural disasters. Loving God with our minds is reflected in positive thinking that sees the goodness of God somewhere in every circumstance, and which can echo back in the chorus ‘God is good’.
That is not a natural reaction however, so more about that tomorrow!
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