Holy FireSample

PART FOUR: With All My Heart

○ Matthew 22:37 (NIV)

“Jesus replied: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

○ Psalm 9:1-2 (NIV)

“I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.”

○ Hosea 10:12 (NIV)

“Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.”

When people ask, “What’s your passion,” what they’re really asking is what gets you excited? What gets you out of bed each day? What can you get lost in doing?

It could be a passion for a certain cause, for music, for making money, fitness, or watching sport. You can be passionate about a lot of things, even good things, but your primary passion and greatest ambition in life should be your relationship with God.

Matthew 22:37 in the Passion Translation says: “Love the Lord your God with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being, and with every thought that is within you.”

God wants us to get some things settled in our heart. One of the most crucial is deciding whether we are all-in when it comes to our relationship with Him.

‘Lev’ means heart in Hebrew, and it wasn't a body part to the Israelites. They had a broader understanding of heart than our culture. They thought of the heart as the organ that gives physical life and the place where you think and make sense of the world, where you feel emotions and make choices.

Jesus spoke a great deal about the heart. The heart is a metaphor for the inner life, and it is the center and the source of the whole inner life – thinking, feeling, and willing.

To love God with all your heart means to love God with your emotions, with your choices, with the very core of who you are.

Praising him with all your heart - with your happiness, smile, and gratitude - is easy when things are going well, like when you receive an answer to prayer or when some ridiculous favour comes your way. But how about when things aren’t going so well?

Maybe you are up against an uncertain future, a challenging relationship, an ongoing issue that is slowing you down, or a sickness that seems unbeatable. We don’t know how God will choose to work in your situation. But we do know this: Jesus has defeated death, our final enemy. Your present may be shaking, but through Him your eternity is unshakeable. That deserves some whole-hearted thanks today!

Thanksgiving is neither conditional nor compartmentalised. Thanksgiving does not say, “I will thank you if…” or “I thank you, God, for this but not for that.” Thanksgiving does not hold out or hold back. Thanksgiving is the expression of the “whole heart”.

We can praise God with all we have today because He is always on our side. He will turn back the enemies that attack us. Through Jesus, our enemy has been defeated.

ALL your heart means at ALL times. Even when God seems quiet. Even when he says wait. And even when he says no. And, yes, even when bad things happen.

Continuing to love God even when bad things happen or when good things don’t happen is key to a life of contentment. You don’t have to be happy “for” the bad thing. You just have to see through that bad circumstance to the God who wants to comfort you and will never leave you nor forsake you.

Loving God at all times is a day-to-day learning process. We learn more and more how to do it and keep on doing it a little each day.

A prayer for today: “Jesus, help me to set my heart to love and pursue You wholeheartedly as my primary passion and greatest ambition in life.”