Hello Church,

I am so excited about the coming weeks of working on our relationships and bringing them to a healthier state. Yesterday, we learned that relationships are to be given the highest value in our list of priorities. Jesus said that loving God and loving others was the greatest of all commandments. He was very clear about how important our relationship with God and with others in our lives are to be. Thankfully, He told us how to implement these priorities. He instructed that we are to love God with ALL of our heart, ALL of our soul, ALL of our mind, and ALL of our strength. (Mark 12:29-31) Let's consider each of those for just a moment. One of my resources for this series is Tom Holladay's book, The Relationship Principles of Jesus. Here are a few thoughts taken from that book.

ALL of your heart - Your heart is where you feel. I am choosing to focus on the emotional side of the bigger idea of "heart" in the Bible. It needs our focused attention because often times our expression of love to God can be very formal and has the potential to cause us to love without emotion. Listen, just like we love to hear our children express their feelings of love for us, our Heavenly Father enjoys hearing of our feelings of love for Him as well. This week, consider your feelings of love for God. Tell Him about your feelings for Him. He will enjoy hearing from you.

ALL of your soul - Your soul is where you decide. Have you ever decided to do something, even though you didn't feel like doing it? What caused you to be able to do so? You have a will. You're not driven by your emotions or even your thoughts. Your soul decides. It can decide not to decide - to allow your emotions to have free reign - but even doing that is a decision of your soul. In your soul, will you decide to love God completely? Make the decision to love God.

ALL of your mind - Your mind is where you think. Your mind is the seat of your impressions, thoughts, intelligence, and where learning happens. Faith in God doesn't mean we stop thinking. In fact, just the opposite is true. God wants us to think through our love for Him. Think about how God has demonstrated his love for you and how you can demonstrate your love for him. Think about your love for God.

ALL of your strength - Your strength is where everything comes to surface and actually translates into action. At some point, a heart, soul, and mind of love must turn into real action. It requires energy and strength.

This week, let's all focus on engaging all four levels of love toward God. Let's grow in our love for God. I am so excited to see what God does in each of our hearts as we grow in our relationship with Him.

Continue to consider your priorities and how you might need to make adjustments in order to give your relationship with God it's rightful place at the top of your priority list.

Blessings,

Pastor Joel