July 3 Devotion - Love God with all your strength

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

وتحب الرب الهك من كل قلبك ومن كل نفسك ومن كل فكرك ومن كل قدرتك هذه هي الوصية الاولى

Mark 12:30

I often wondered: what does it really mean to love God with all of my strength and what does the word ‘love’ in this context really mean?

I believe ‘love’ here means a reverent adoration toward God which is intense and steadfast, with passion and enduring loyalty.

In order for me to love God with all my strength, I need to reverently and passionately put all the gifts He has given me under His service. The gifts He has given me that I would put under His services include but are not limited to my abilities, resources, time, and energy. When I serve God it awakens love in me, and my love for God is continually refueled when I feel that I am pleasing Him. Since I treasure my relationship with the Lord, my actions reflect that.

In order to bring my life (ship) in from the storm, the rudder of my ship (my actions, deeds) needs to be my love for God with all my strength.

How do I do that? God teaches me that:

‘If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me;’

My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

1 John 3:18, John 12:26

So my love for God with all my strength will be demonstrated by my actions and deeds in serving God and the rudder of my ship is controlled by following Jesus.

I invite you to repeat the following prayer for yourself:

Abba Father, please help me and teach me to love and serve You with all my strength in the way that pleases You. Lord, awaken love in me, and continually refuel my love for You. Help me to put under Your service all the gifts You have given me; with passion and enduring loyalty. Jesus I want to follow You and love You in deed and in truth.

God I praise You, glorify You and lift You up on high. I thank You God for your abundant blessings and for Your deep, everlasting and inseparable love. In the name of the King of kings and Lord of lords, in the Holy Name of Jesus I pray. I declare Jesus as my Lord and Saviour, to Him be the power, the glory, the majesty, the blessings, and the dominion forever and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

Jesus loves you,

In Him,

Wagdi Henein