Lessons in Love - All of My Mind

I mentioned at the beginning of the month that my word for 2014 is LOVE.

I'm compelled to understand what it truly means to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength."  Deuteronomy 6:5



In the gospels, Jesus quotes this verse from Deuteronomy, with some different words:

Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."  Matthew 22:37

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength."  Mark 12:30

He answered, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and Love your neighbor as yourself."

Luke 10:27

These are a collection of verses that is Jesus' response to the question,

"Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

LOVE

As I've been praying about this desire of mine to truly LOVE God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, I've been struck with loving God with all my mind.

I often struggle with bad thoughts.

I find myself having "fake" conversations with no one when I'm getting ready in the morning or driving in the car.  I might be defending an argument I had the night before with my husband, pleading my case to an imaginary person.  Or rehashing a conversation with a girlfriend that I greatly disagreed with. My mind becomes filled with negative thought towards others.  Judgement.  Arrogance.  It's all clutter.

As I read "LOVE God with all of your mind," I quickly realized that loving God with all of my mind means all of my thoughts being pointed towards God.  My "fake" conversations with no one are rarely pointed towards God and loving Him.

If I love God with all of my mind, all of my thoughts must be on Him.

In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul talks about the divine power we have to demolish strongholds in our lives - sin that entangles us.  "We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." 

Taking captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ - loving God with all of my mind means every thought being held captive by Christ - not allowing my mind to wander to negative "fake" conversations, judgement, fear, anger...

Lord Jesus, hold every thought captive in obedience to you today, Amen