When asked what were the two most important commands from God, Jesus simply, yet profoundly, replied :
“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[b]”-Luke 10:27
Some versions I have read say something to the effect of " and the second command is just as important (or equally important) as the first, love your neighbor as you love yourself"
This tells me, that it isn't good enough to just Love God, we must also in the same way Love Our Neighbors as we love ourselves!
Jesus takes it even further when He says:
"But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you"-Matthew 5:44
Jesus gives us a new challenge or command, to not only just love our neighbors (or those that are nice to us, love us, treat us well, or fellow Christians) but also to love our enemies as well. To pray for those (or bless those) that do harm to us, persecute us. We are to do good to them. Just as we do to our neighbors.
I don't know about you-but this is a real challenge for me!!
First , is the command to Love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is something that I personally am still learning about. Surely I do Love Abba so very much! But, I have had to be honest with myself...and ask...do I love Him with ALL of my heart, soul, mind and strength. I think that it was head knowledge and even partially in my heart that I loved God, but did God really have my whole heart? It is hard to really ask yourself this. It is tough to ask God to show you this truth. Do I love you Abba first? Are you , God, my first love in this life? I recently began to really be transparent before God. To come before Him totally and completely abandoned of myself. To lay down my life at His feet every single day and ask Him to fill me. To help me truly "die to my self" (my selfish nature, desires, wants , needs...) so that I can be filled more and more with Yeshua and have a heart and mind like Him. I have asked God to show me any areas of my heart that are not totally sold out to Him. Show me, God, areas of my heart and my life, that are not for you alone..that do not please you. "Search me , God, and know me. Test me. Show me unclean ways in my heart and life so that I may become more and more like you , Yeshua. " This is my daily prayer now. And in praying this, well, I have seen that God WILL be faithful and answer and I have seen those ways! It's not easy to see the ways that don't please God...but I truly want Him to be my first love in this life. I don't want anything to be above Him. He wants the same of course, He requires no idols above Him and that He is the one and only God. He wants to be our first love! Maybe He is your first love...and that is wonderful! I just have had to really ask myself if He is my first love...and upon searching and asking God to show me I have realized there are other things in my life that take place of Him at times. That is becoming less and less as I give Him my life every day. He shows me these things and then I turn from them to Him and ask Him to help me not make them my idols but help me to make Him my first love. By laying down my life , I am giving Him my heart, mind, soul, strength. I am putting Him first. I am submitting my entire life to Him! This is hard because then you realize just how much you hold on to your life! How much "control" you really do have, or at least try to have. But, He is such a loving and merciful and patient and forgiving God. And He will see that you long to make Him your first love. He will help you work through these things and let go. And slowly, in time, you will let go and become more and more like Christ and less and less of "you". He will really be your first love.
I am still going through this process and honestly , some days it's tough. Some days I don't understand it all but what keeps me laying down my life every day is that I truly want to love God with all my heart , soul , mind and strength. I want Him to be my first love in this life.So, some days that's all I say. Some days I am so tired, worn out, frustrated, or even sick and all I can do is just say "Here I am God, I am yours.I give you my life."
I also think that this is something that is a daily thing. Not a ritual or anything like that. But, we are human and our flesh nature battles with us! Even Christians at times. Laying down your life every day is a good thing! It's giving God your human and flesh nature so that he can use you. Fill you with His glorious agape love. For me, it means that in everything I do now, I ask God. I try not to do anything without making sure I go to Daddy first. "is this ok Father?" or "please help me through this" or " Please use me in this situation"..etc. I don't always remember to do it, no , I am not perfect. I forget. We all do and God doesn't want us to be filled with dread and guilt. He just wants to teach us. He see's our hearts. He knows we long for Him! That brings God joy :-) He knows where our hearts are and that we want to bless Him and love Him with everything in us. He also knows the struggle of flesh and spirit. How strong that is. But as we give Him our lives He strengthens us more and more! Thank you , Father!
I must tell you. I will say this a hundred times. I am so far from being a perfect Mom, Wife, Christian or having it all together. Very far! Some days, I feel like I not only did not love or honor God very well but that I also did not love anyone else very well. Some days are really hard. But in those days, I don't give up. I may not "feel" close to God that day or even "feel" like praying much. In those days...I just put on some praise music and listen...and soon I find I am singing and praising God and smiling. I'm serious. This may sound kind of -silly to some. But it's true. One example was the other day -well we have all been pretty sick here lately. I was feeling horrible. Exhausted doesn't even describe it. My throat hurt and I was achy and miserable. I decided to put on some praise music. Soon, I was singing to God and didn't notice my soar throat anymore! It put me in the best mood for a time. Just to connect with God. I never thought to do that before. Then a Godly woman I love and respect talked about how she did that very thing when she was at a low point in her life not too long ago. She felt she had no more of her strength left in her. It was a dark time. She fell to her knee's in her kitchen and did just that...she prayed in song and praised God. She said the darkness began to lift and there was such joy. I tried it and it's true. Once you overcome those earthly feelings by connecting your spirit to God's spirit....His glory light shines through to you and lifts you up! This may sound crazy but after that day I did that, and I prayed for His healing that night...the next day i started to feel better and now a few days later I am healed. My husband has had this same illness for over a week so I was sure I was in for a wild ride! Could it be in praising God even in suffering that it brought about healing?I don't know for sure. I think so...but I will never know. I just now know that in simply choosing to focus on God and love Him when I felt so low, He will lift me (and you ) up!
In Loving God with our everything.....we then can love our neighbors as ourselves. And our enemies too! This part I have realized that I need a lot of growth in. I used to say I "loved" people but what was in my heart? Jealousy? Bitterness? Unforgiveness? That is not loving them. And yes I did love some people but usually those that were in my circle of friends and family. I woke up to this realization that I did not love everyone as myself. I prayed about this. And felt that I had to first love God with my everything. Make Him my first love. More then my children and more then my husband. I had to sacrifice my husband and kids to Him. Must I love them?YES! Of course! God wants me to do that . But not more then I love Him! Slowly but surely as I grow in my love for Yeshua....I see that in turn, His love is flowing through me more and more and I can honestly say that I think I am starting to really "love" others as God does. Not in my own understanding of what love is. But loving them with Agape Love. Love of God. Love from God. I am still growing here. I am still learning every day just to even love my own family let alone others! I think this will be a longer thing for me to understand because I have to allow God to clean out my heart and all the dark spots in it. You can be the sweetest nicest person, but everyone has areas of their lives that are strong holds. Those one or two places that are hidden deep within that surface when just the right situation pops up. We have to be transparent before God. We have to be totally open to Him and allow Him to work on those spots in our hearts and lives. We have to allow Him to clean us out and purify our Hearts if we are to really love others as we love ourselves.
And to not only love our neighbors..but our enemies too! Whew...I have just begun to scratch the surface on that one. I want to obey God so I will do my best to just open my heart to Him to clean and purify me. No doubt I am His child and saved...but are there areas of darkness at times in me? Yes! I will admit that straight out! I see this area in me arise in the form of jealousy. I struggled very very much for many years with this. I felt so hopeless and almost gave up on my marriage and family because I could not deal with this pain. It was a bitter and ugly root taking hold in my life and strangling me. As a "newer" Christian-and I did not know how to fight this. It was slowly killing me. Not being dramatic here, my husband can testify to this. I almost left many times.Not because of him-because of me! I couldn't take the pain and issues I was causing in our family anymore. But really, it was the enemy. I sort of saw that but ..didn't really know what to do. It was always there. This is already longer then I wanted it to be so I won't go into much detail , maybe this can be another topic some day. But I will say that back then, just a few short years ago...I did not really love others the way God wanted me too. I heard lies about myself (insecurities, not being good or pretty enough) and lies about others and instead of submitting my thoughts to God, taking them captive before the Lord, I believed them. Instead of praying and meditating on the Lord , I meditated on those dark and life stealing thoughts. I did not love. I hardly loved myself. It was a tough time. But, God is faithful!!! He brought me through and I can say that He is teaching me and growing me every day! Do I still have these thoughts at times, yes. But they are now faint whispers in the background as oppose to a loud megaphone in my ear! They are barely there. And when they come, I take hold of it and submit it to God. They are lies anyway. But this growth had to come with a price. Laying down my life. Dying to my "self" and giving my life and heart to Yeshua. I could not grow and change on my own. I tried. Many times. To overcome this on my own. It was so bad that it drove us away from our old church! If that isn't the enemy then I don't know what is! I did not love other women, I was fearful and jealous. Now, when this starts to occur I know what it is. I know it's a lie. I don't give in anymore..and I choose LOVE. I can choose to love because I am choosing to LOVE the king first. And He in turn is helping me to love others..truly this time. When this starts to happen, I take hold of that thought..and then I love that person. Even if I just say "I lover her!" A simple thought like that...well years ago if you told me I would now be able to do that..I would laugh at you! It is God's love working in me and all glory and praise goes to Him alone.
In conclusion to this already horribly long post....I have realized that these two commands are very important. Not only the first, to love God with all of your being...but to love others in the same way. And your enemies. I cannot do this on my own. It is through learning to really love God, my King, creator and Father...with every part of me , that I will then learn to love others. And also, sometimes loving others has to be an intentional thing. At times, it's natural. You just love as you learn to love the king more and more you will want to love His people, Christian and non Christians alike. But other times you have to tell yourself to love them! Like for me with the lies I hear from the enemy about other women....I shut him up now by proclaiming love in Christ for them! It's intentional but once I do that....then I really do love them! I see them from God's eyes and not from my own eyes and what I see on the outside. It's important to remember that in loving someone..you don't have to agree with or like their actions or behaviors or choices in life. See,this is tough for me because I find that I may not truly love someone if I don't agree with the choices they make. I have to get to a point, with Gods help of course, where I can separate those things. Love them despite that and realize by loving them it doesn't mean I agree with their life choices! And really, it doesn't matter if I do or not. What is important is loving them with love from Yeshua! Just allowing God's love to flow through to them is what's important. And since God IS love....then we must love others. There is no way around it. And Jesus' even said they are the two most important commands.
I pray for myself and each one reading this...that this has been a blessing to you from God. That we can all continue to grow in our deep love for Abba Father, and for one another. And even our enemies!
Love In Christ,
M & M
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