“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” ~ Deuteronomy 6:5, NKJV
“Let your heart therefore be loyal to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and keep His commandments, as at this day.” ~ 1 Kings 8:61, NKJV
“Since God chose you to be the holy people He loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.” ~ Colossians 3:12-14, NLT
“I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. You have patiently suffered for me without quitting.
“But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love Me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to Me and do the works you did at first.” ~ Revelation 2:2-5a, NLT
I Want to Love You With All of My Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength
Father, when I consider the work of Your hands and the beauty of Your heart, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. Your love is amazing, Your power to handle the impossible is mind-boggling. And yet, this is all second nature to You because this is who You are. I want to love You with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength — with everything that I am.
But I don’t want my declaration of love to be mere rhetoric. I want to be consumed by You. I want to be overwhelmed with my love for You.
Please forgive me when I don’t seek You first. I’m realizing more and more that I have gods in my life who strive to take my attention and devotion away from You. The more I desire to love You with all of my heart, the more I seem to struggle to love You first. This bothers me! And I’m glad it does.
This means that there is a battle between flesh and spirit … a battle means I am making strides in this department of loving You with all my heart. If I wasn’t, there wouldn’t be a struggle to die to self and love You more.
Thank You for not demanding. Your love comes softly when I seek You with sincerity. You whisper my name. You call to me to come and sit with You awhile. You call me to choose You over the other things in my life that demand my attention. You call me in a gentle, loving way … but it’s up to me to choose You over fleshly desires.
And I do. I desire to truly love You with all of my heart. I realize until my dying day, I will fall short at times, but in the moments of shortcomings, I know You will extend a hand and call to me once more, offering forgiveness as a loving Father would.
I Love You, Lord. There is None Like You
I’m not making light of Your holiness or the fact that You are Almighty God! I would never do that. But I am recognizing that You, my Father, are teaching me how to be holy and how to love You above myself.
And I thank You for that. I thank You for Your longsuffering. I thank You for Your mercy and grace when I fail. And I thank You for awakening my heart to want more of You. You are wonderful, Lord. There is none like You. All of my heart belongs to You.
In Jesus’s Name, I pray,
Amen ~ let it be so
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Please don’t carry your burdens alone. I would be honored to pray for you. You may contact me directly at nan@nanjones.com
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Thank you so much for stopping by. I would love for you to share what’s on your heart in the comments below. Scroll a little farther down and you’ll see where you can leave your comments. Together, we can find the nearness of God in our darkest moments.
Sweet blessings to you,
