With All Our Soul

 

Let us be thankful for another day the One True God has given us.  May we joyfully walk hand in hand with Him today!

 With All Our Soul

I daresay most of us know God wants us to love Him with all our soul, heart, minds, and strength (or might).  We know this is called the greatest commandment and indeed it is! Everything else hinges on our love for the Heavenly Father. 

Our souls are the eternal part of us.  It is what sets us apart from the other earthly creatures God made.  Our souls are the essence of who we are.  As Lonnie Jones once said, “we are souls with bodies – not bodies with souls."   We must love God with all of who we are!

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:13 – “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”  What a wonderful verse this is!!  I read this verse with a totally different mind set last night. 

I found something while I was studying which made me really stop and think. I wish I could remember where I saw it but I can’t at the moment.  Although it makes perfect sense, it was something I had never thought of before. 

The article mentioned that loving God with all our soul means we will love Him eternally.  Once we get to heaven, our faith becomes sight.  We will actually be in the presence of Christ – the Savior we’ve had faith in.  Faith will be evident – it becomes intimate knowledge.  Love will outlast faith. 

In that same line of thinking, if heaven is where our faith becomes sight, it is also where our hope is realized.  That sure and steadfast confidence that God will keep His promises is rewarded with the actuality of it all.  There is no longer a need for hope, because the promises have been kept. 

Our love for God is eternal.  We will still love Him long after our faith becomes sight and our hope is realized. 

To me, loving God with all our soul means we have the spirit of humility.  We realize that we are nothing without our Heavenly Father.  We depend on His grace and mercy for our salvation.  We become like the poor in spirit that Christ mentioned in Matthew 5:3.

We realize we are utterly dependent on Him and we long for Him.  We are driven by a strong desire to be with Him.   I am reminded of Psalm 42:1-2 “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God.  ² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.  When shall I come and appear before God?”

 I pray we can all learn to love God with that spiritual part of ourselves that will last throughout eternity. 

 Christ above all things – Robin