For His Name's Sake

“You shall love the Lord your God…

with all your heart,

with all your soul,

and with all your mind.” (matt 22:37)

I am relearning (or maybe learning for the first time) what it means to love God.

I mean to really love Him with all that I have.

To love Him with all of my heart-to desire Him, to connect with Him through worship, to long for Him as a deer pants for water, with all my emotions to cherish Him.

To love Him with all of my soul-deeper than emotions that ebb and flow and are tossed and controlled by the waves and storms around me, to love Him at the very core of who I am, from deep within me to love Him even when I don’t feel Him, to love Him and glorify Him with all that I am and all that I hope to be.

To love Him with all of my mind-to consciously, intentionally and willingly choose to love Him, to choose to obey Him even when I don’t understand Him, to not let doubts or fears come between us, to choose to worship and glorify Him through my obedience, to choose to die to self and live for Him.