Matthew 22:34-40

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees,
they gathered together, and one of them,
a scholar of the law, tested him by asking,
"Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"
He said to him,
"You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart,
with all your soul, and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."

“Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Where to even start with that! My initial thoughts used to be PANIC whenever I heard these verses. What if I’m not loving Him enough? And how does a lowly mortal like me love him with everything?! It’s hard enough to do the second part of the verse; love people and love myself. What?!

Luckily, there’s grace. All the grace! He patiently gifts us HIS love in times when we forget how TO love. He’s the ultimate lover, standing at our hearts, just waiting for us to open up to Him. And luckily, this relationship with God is not a one-sided love. Sure, He asks for love from us, but it’s so important to remember he gave love to us first. He bloody well invented love! We’ll never out-love him. And we’ll never love Him as much as He deserves. But that’s the beauty of these verses. He’s not saying, “Love me perfectly!” No. It’s such a subtle but huge nuance here. He’s instead saying “Love me with ALL of yourself!”

Even when we’re struggling with addictions or heartache or faith, bringing him into those moments of struggle is what He wants. Part of showing someone you love them is through showing you trust them with your entire self… Even the broken parts. Even the parts we hate in ourselves. He doesn’t demand instant perfection in these verses. He’s demanding ALL of ourselves! It’s pretty awesome that God, knowing how broken and messy we are, continues to desire our broken and messy love.