Key Passage
Jesus answered, “The most important command is this: ‘People of Israel, listen! The Lord our God is the only Lord. You must love the Lord your God. You must love him with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.'”
— Mark 12:29-30 ERV (Read Full Text)
Key Thought
The essence of our response of faith is pretty straightforward. Love God. It can be said in a number of different ways. Love God above all things. Love God more than all things. Love God with all you are. Love God for as long as you have life. Essentially, however, the bottom line of the command is still the same: love God.
Prayer
O Father, may my every word, my every action, my every thought, and my every emotion be brought under your influence and offered to your glory. While I know such surrender will always be a life-long battle, I do pray that you know that this is what I want to do. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Related Scriptures
“I am the Lord your God. I led you out of the land of Egypt where you were slaves. {So you must obey these commands:} “You must not worship any other gods except me. “You must not make any idols. Don’t make any statues or pictures of anything up in the sky or of anything on the earth or of anything down in the water. Don’t worship or serve idols of any kind. Why? Because I, the Lord, am your God. I hate my people worshiping other gods. People who sin against me become my enemies. And I will punish those people. And I will punish their children, their grandchildren, and even their great-grandchildren. But I will be very kind to people who love me and obey my commands. I will be kind to their families for thousands of generations!
— Exodus 20:2-6
So brothers and sisters, I beg you to do something. God has shown us great mercy. So offer your lives as a living sacrifice to God. Your offering must be only for God and will be pleasing to him. This offering of yourselves is the spiritual way for you to worship (serve) God. Don’t change yourselves to be like the people of this world. But let God change you inside with a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide and accept what God wants for you. You will be able to know what things are good and pleasing to God and what things are perfect.
— Romans 12:1-2
God’s followers, you should love the Lord! The Lord protects people that are loyal to him. But the Lord punishes people that brag about their own power. He gives them the punishment they deserve.
— Psalm 31:23
Devotional provided by Heartlight®
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