Love God with All Your Soul

And you shall LOVE the LORD your God with ALL your SOUL….Matthew 22:37

What is the soul?

The soul is your essence, the intellect, desires, the will, emotions. It is your personality, commitment, faith, all that makes you God-like, spirit.

Jesus said to love God with all your soul…

He said, ALL, not part, all of it.

When you are moved to compassion seeing a new-baby take its first breath. When you listen to the voice of a prodigy, sing and hit the highest note and you hold your breath hoping they can do it…and you are thrilled beyond belief when they do. It’s as if your soul takes flight. Your soul…

It is like putting all you desires and all you hope for, into your talents and dreams and voilà, you succeed. Your soul soars.

You commit to a project, a career, a person, your word is your bond. You see it through. That’s your soul.

When all Hell breaks loose and your finances and health fail, but you keep your integrity and faith to the end and you will not give up because you know God is with you. That is your soul, your will, your emotions.

On the other hand maybe you have a personality that is not so loving or endearing…you’re abrupt and obnoxious and no one wants to be around you.

Your desires are for self and you will do whatever it takes to have your way…

Then my friend, your soul is sick. It is without substance, there is no light in your soul because your soul is lost and dead.

To Love the Lord Your God with all your soul, you must first know who God is and have Him living in your soul. How can you love Him with all your soul if you don’t even know who He is?

The Jews were taught the Word of God from the time of Moses. They knew what the holy scrolls said because the Rabi’s taught it every Sabbath in the temple. The people taught God’s word to their children, and to their grandchildren. They taught it when they awoke and when they laid down at night. They wrote God’s word on their doorpost and carried it on the frontlets of their heads. They spoke God’s word in their daily tasks. And yet their souls were far from Him. Their hearts were hardened and they turned deaf ears to what it means to, love God will all their soul.

God said,

Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are on the road, when you are going to bed and when you are getting up. Deuteronomy 11:19 New Living Translation (NLT)

If they had known God they would have known Jesus. God’s word described Jesus exactly. It told in every detail how Jesus would live and die and rise again. They didn’t recognize Him when He came. They only went through the motions. They did not love God with all their soul.

(Pharisees asked)

“Where is your father?” they asked.

Jesus answered, “Since you don’t know who I am, you don’t know who my Father is. If you knew me, you would also know my Father.” John 8:19

Do you know Him?

Do you think about God when you rise and throughout your day and when you lie down to sleep? Do you talk about His goodness and His love? Do you ask Him for direction before you make a decision? Is your soul committed to Him? Do you spend as much time with Him as you do before the television? Are you addicted to your cell phone, scrolling apps or news or social whatever…but if Jesus is mentioned you cringe?

Is your Bible dusty? Do you even know where it is, do you even have a Bible? Not just a mundane, let me get through this because the preacher said to read a passage, kind of reading. Is your soul thirsty, crying out for something, but there’s a great big hole that cannot be filled. You know because you’ve tried to fill it by being a workaholic, or dull your feelings with drugs or with dead lifeless dreams that lead only to the destruction of your soul? Are you tired? Empty? Lonely? Frustrated? Sick? Wandering?

Is your time spent racing cars, writing books, reading materials that are mindless entertainment and that will not prosper your soul…? I’m not saying that these kinds of activities are all wrong but if your soul is drying up because you haven’t loved God first then yes, you will need to do some adjusting in your priorities.

Do you know God?

Do you LOVE God?

You will know because there will be such a longing to be with Him…to study Him, to talk to Him all the time…He will saturate your thoughts and mind and being…He will reveal Himself to you in ways you never imagined…

I don’t want to cause condemnation. Oh no. I just want you to be aware that, to Love God with all your soul…is more than a Sunday morning experience, it’s more than a mini prayer and off you go, to do, whatever it is you do. It is a daily life-sustaining, glorious, adventure…if you see yourself in this post, and want to change, just ask Jesus to give your soul the desire to love Him totally and completely and I promise you, He will.

When you love God with all your soul…He will love your soul right back and more!

As the Psalmist declared in Psalm 23…He restores my soul…

–Marla Shaw O’Neill February 9, 2017