Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly: A 7-Day Devotional by Pat BarrettSample

DAY 1: THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT

The Bible is long, like overwhelmingly long and to top it all off, the font is small…tiny, small. There are so many pages and so many genealogies. There are so many names that are close to impossible to pronounce correctly on the first try…so many commandments. It’s filled with ancient laws that feel decently irrelevant today. It is so long and so complex that people have argued about it for ages, which I find fascinating. There is a story in the book of Matthew where Jesus is in the middle of one of these discussions and is asked, which commandment is the greatest? 

“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” Matthew 22:37-38 (NIV)

This answer may be “simple”, but it’s not necessarily easy. This is the type of answer that invites us to take a look at our lives and be honest about it. 

What do you love the most? What do you spend most of your time thinking about or worrying about? What are you consumed by or anxious over? What fills your mind?

Is it popularity? Money? Power? Influence? Gossip? Jealousy? Anger? Prejudice? Worry? _____? You fill in the blank.

The greatest commandment addresses the thing that matters most to us and we actually get to decide what that ‘thing’ is. If there is something that we love more than God, we are invited to change that, and it is easier said than done. These things are not dethroned willingly; they lash out. They try to claw and climb their way to the top of what is seen as most important to us. They beg for our attention every day and every day we get to choose what will fill our heart, mind and soul. 

Therefore, we have a decision to make. What will it be?

“But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” Joshua 24:15