Thirty Days of Thanksgiving and Worship 预览

All of Me...

And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment.
Mark 12:30

Lord Jesus reminds us of Moses' words when He speaks to the questioning scribe about loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

We find in the entirety of the Bible that He wants all of us, all the time, and this affects our thanks and praise. Loving God with every fiber of our being is another form of surrender – a tender hand-over to all that we hold dear.

The New Testament Word for soul – psyche – is that part of our life that includes our heart and emotions, mind and thoughts, intellect, the ability to choose, and our personality. It is here, in these deep and ponderous wells of who we are, where the lifelong process of His redemption and sanctification takes place. Jesus wants to set free and restore the entirety of our soul. Possibly He speaks of these areas distinctly in the verse above because our hearts and minds – each part of our soul – need our continual attention and intentionality in loving and worshiping Him.

And then, Jesus speaks of our strength – our physical being – to love and worship Him thoroughly. The Bible invites us to exhibit our thanksgiving and devotion through lifted hands, dancing, kneeling, clapping, and lying prostrate. In the coming days, we will touch on these aspects of praise as we engage our hearts, minds, souls, and yes, our bodies to give Him the glory He is oh so worthy of.

Did you notice that Jesus doesn’t mention our spirit when speaking to the scribe?

Remember? Our spirit is that hidden portion of us where God dwells in the Person of the Holy Spirit. Before coming to Christ, our spirits were dead because of the terminal condition handed to us from the Garden. However, upon receiving Jesus, our spirits have been born again. This Holy Spirit-filled place in us doesn’t need to be reminded to worship like the rest of us does!

Instead, let’s be intentional to engage all the other aspects of our being – to love and adore Him.