WITH ALL, LOVE HIM!

Praise God!

Deutronomy 6: 4-5  Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord [the only Lord].  And you shall love the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being and with all your might.

Matthew 22: 36-37 Teacher, which kind of commandment is great and important (the principal kind) in the Law? [Some commandments are light - which are heavy?]. And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect).

This words are so familiar to us but often times than not we are quick to say the words, sometimes merely reading them without meaning any of it.  At times, we really want to do what the Scripture says, but when we are given the cost, we aren't willing to pay it and like the rich young ruler, we walk away sad because the cost is ALL OF US! What intrigues me the most is the fact that Jesus didn't chase after the young ruler, He let him go! 

The truth is, in not loving the Lord and living for Him wholeheartedly, we are living in idolatry and lukewarmness. We cannot love the Lord with our all unless we divorce our idols and in the throne of our lives, we allow Jesus to reign as the ONLY Lord. It is until we know by revelation and recognize in truth how worthy the Lord is that we will give our all to Him.

Delve in. Jesus is the Son of God. God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son...(John 3:16). Jesus in Philippians 2: 7-8, stripped Himself of all His rightful privileges and took the form of a servant and gave His life on the cross for our sins. He who knew no sin became sin for us to be called the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). He looked at you and I and said, " loosing my life for them is totally worth it!". The life we didn't deserve, He gave it to us, how evil is it then that we would look at Him, look at the work of the cross and even professed of receiving Him as Lord and Saviour and still see Him not as Worthy? 

2Chronicles 6: 9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are blameless toward Him. The Lord is literally searching and to search means to try to find something by looking or otherwise seeking carefully and thoroughly. God would not have been searching if the people whose hearts are blameless toward Him were readily available. We have become Christians who don't want to walk and live habitually before the Lord and carry no consciousness of the presence of God. We have allowed the devil to serve us a buffet of everything that can gratify our flesh and we willingly indulge in the feast set before us quickly trying to negotiate with the Lord about how "human" we are and like Eve we are seduced out of wholeheartedness, out of pure devotion to the Lord. Because what we have now, are men relying on themselves, we don't want to heed to the voice of the Spirit who leads in righteousness, and we are so full of excuses. One thing I have realized, if we really valued God, if we really have God as Lord over our lives, we would hate sin, we wouldn't give occasion to our flesh to do evil, and as God said in His Word that even when we encounter trials and temptations, we would lean on the truth that He has made a way for us out of it and that way is without a doubt the path of holiness.

To live a righteous life, wholeheartedness is required! If this is not the case in our lives, when we stand before the Lord, we are just but presenting such shameless vile lives before Him. Those in whom the Lord delights in are those who see Him as Worthy of All! Romans 12:1  I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship. In light of His Mercy, we give ourselves away. Our hearts have to be hallowed ground for the Lord. What's happening at the moment is a people who profess that we of the Lord and are with Him yet there's no translation in our lives, since we are still in love with the world and the things of the world. We don't just worship, we must be worship itself! And this we cannot be, if all we want to give the Lord is parts of us and still be in control of other parts. Friends, it is all or nothing! The Lord called out this lukewarmness in the church of Laodecia in Revelation 3. We are either of the Lord and with the Lord or we are not. God hates this hot and cold business so much that He says He will vomit them out of His mouth! You wouldn't want to vomit what is not disgusting 🥴....The Lord is calling us to repent today, let us do so zealously and return to the Lord.

Can the Lord find in us a people who despite everything He has entrusted to them , they wouldn't trade Him for anything? Oh how our hearts have been given over to the very seductive world and our affection and devotion has been set on it. The thoughts of our minds are neither on Jesus or glorifying Him and instead of meditating on His Word day and night, other things and for some of us people have preoccupied our minds. We are spending our strength on things on the earth which even when tried by fire they will not stand and at times think by spending ourselves in church or in what we call the things of the Lord we are good to go when if we scrutinized our lives, we would end up realising that we did things for Him but were truly never with Him. Can the Lord look at us and say: I have found one whose heart is blameless toward Me?

We love Him because He first loved us. He isn't ashamed of us, we mustn't be ashamed of Him. We didn't make any effort to love Him and it is not a mere matter of duty to love the Lord. When we see His love, when we understand what and who love is, yea, in knowing and believing we will not help it but love Him. We love Him because He has completely won our hearts and we do so WHOLEHEARTEDLY. Truly holding nothing back! We must yearn to live in His presence, abiding in Him for as long as there is breath in our lungs, for then, as we behold Him, one thing that's for sure is we will see how worthy He is of our ALL. The elders are before Him everyday and even with the crowns He has given them, they see the King enthroned and lay them down at His feet. He is Worthy! So so worthy! 

Dear Father in Heaven, 

We recognize today how much we have lived halfheartedly for You. We repent. And now we surrender ALL. This is not just words that come out of our mouths, we mean them with our hearts. We desire to dwell in Your Presence and have Your face turned towards us so that we behold the One who loved us even while we were yet sinners, You died for us. Jesus, just as You love us, by Your Spirit, we want to declare our love for You. We love You. Oh let us behold You and have all the love of eternity poured into our souls and at that moment, we will know and see how much You love us. We will know Your majesty in a way we've never known it before, when no one will have to tell us You are King, and may our response to this, be Worship! The giving over of all our lives, to the One who gave us His life! You're worthy of my All!

In His service,

Imani❤️