Time To Fall in Love

[Ramez5]

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. Matthew 22:37


You know how you read a verse over and over..and you suddenly realize you’ve been missing something? I think we may just do that here. Everytime I’ve read it or heard others read it, the focus is almost always on the part that follows.."and love your neighbors as yourself’.

We all agree that we should love our neighbors and how true it is! It’s the heart of Christlikeness to love.. our neighbors our family, friends, children, especially our spouse.

But the verse that has transformed me dramatically in the last five months.. is the one Jesus said was the greatest.

The absolute GREATEST command of all is to love the Lord..
with ALL your heart..
ALL your soul…and All your mind.

I knew that I did not. I knew I didn’t truly ‘love’ the Lord that much at all. I was too filled with love of other things to love him and certainly not to love him with ALL my heart. I loved a LOT of other things.. hobbies, pleasure, myself..and my heart had grown cold to the Lord and his concerns.

One of the first things I became convicted by when I began to repent and turn around in February.. was this verse.

Did I really love the Lord with all my heart?
No.. I didn't. I knew I didn't.

So I prayed the Lord would help me to quit giving my heart to other things. I prayed he would cause me to love him. I prayed he would heal my cold heart and cause me to care about him again. I quit pursuing the things I was ‘in love with’ and began pursuing the things that would help my love for God to grow. He wanted my affection and in time, he got it.

As time went on, I earnestly pursued loving the Lord with all my mind too.. focusing on and meditating on his word not just once but several times a day. Not just my own devotions, but songs, sermons, anything….loving Him with all my mind rather than constantly focusing on intellectual pursuits or the daily news. Giving God some of my ‘brain time’ instead of just on other things I enjoyed thinking about

Loving him with all my soul..going to him in times of distress and emotional turmoil. I wanted to call friends, my hubby, chat, or facebook but instead, I begain to refrain from calling my ‘soul mates’ at that time, and start to direct my emotional neediness to him. Soon, the Lord truly had ’all my heart, mind and soul.

Talk about a tranformation! It was all internal and impossible to describe. It was hard because I was so attached to other things that made my flesh happy.. but I had no idea that what I was letting go of was going to pale in comparison to what God was going to give me.. when I obeyed this ‘greatest’ commandment ever.

The Lord never quit promising blessings to those who obeyed it.. or consequences to those whose love had grown cold.

Today would be a great day to search your heart and see.. if you are obeying the Greatest commandment ever. And if not, today is a great day to begin.

Dear Lord, Help us to love you more.. help us to quit loving ourselves and the world.. and truly focus this week on loving you with our affections, our devotion, our time, our energy, and only you. Truly you will fill us with love for others if we do so. Fire up our cold hearts dear Lord. Amen

[Mary Naeem]

Thanks Ramez

[walaa farouk]

Thanks Ramez