All!

All!

and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. Deuteronomy 6:5 KJV

The words of today's extract were spoken by Moses, the man of God and addressed to ALL of Israel. As long as you identified with the people of God in the desert, the words here mattered. Why would God, the One who chose Israel as His own treasure, have to remind it of the need to love God? Like all humans, we forget the things that are of eternal value; we get caught up in the daily grind of life, and forget that with God, only one thing matters, and that is the state of my inner man. All the other things that the world celebrates are very inconsequential; only that which is offered to God in truth is important. 

Moses speaks to ALL the people, and charges them to love God. It sounds easy to say to people who already know or have heard about this God, but as we know, reading, learning or hearing about God is not sufficient; the knowledge of God I acquire must push me to love Him with ALL that I am and have. Why is the ALL important here? Because God does not do half-measures. You either give him ALL you have or you keep your all to yourself. God is not going to negotiate ownership with you; it is either He owns ALL of you or nothing of you. You cannot play both sides.

Moses starts with the heart, and moves on to the soul and then might. My zeal and impact are first settled in the inner man, before they can be made manifest on the outside. Men focus on how they can impress others, or how they can drive attention to their labour. Sometimes, we even demand that God also recognise our labour done in His name; unfortunately, labour, by its own, is not what God wants to see. He is looking first for a heart that is totally surrendered to Him. If my heart is correct, my life's output will also be correct. The opposite is also true. 

The soul is the real me; the might in the physical body applies to seasons and times. A time comes when due to age, I can't jump as high as I did when younger. If the soul loves God, age will not matter. In every dispensation or generation, God keeps a remnant for Himself that ministers to that dispensation or generation. The key is to be sure that my heart and soul cling to God with all that they have. There is no room for alternative or competing interests. All I do must flow from a heart and soul that love God. Does this describe me? God's time of favour is here.