Dear friends,

In one instance, a member of the church congregation asked a question “What does it mean to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength?” The church member was referring about the answer of Jesus to a teacher of the Law in Mark 12:30 – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

To love God with all our heart means that our desire, affection, and yearning in life must be focused on God. Our heart is the control center of our whole being. The passion to do something comes from the heart. Our desire for God’s presence must lead us to worship God in a local church. Our yearning to be intimate with God should lead us to read the Bible. Our affection should also be on things that God wants us to be devoted to.

To love God with all our soul means that our life purpose must be in pursuit of what is heavenly and eternal. Soul is what gives us life. God breathe and we became a living soul. This soul will separate from our physical body and will go to eternity – either in heaven or hell. If we want to spend eternity in heaven, then we must live a heavenly life here on Earth. We must practice your eternity today. As Psalm 42:1 reminds us, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.”

To love God with all our mind means that what occupies our mind is God. We become what we think. Proverbs 23:7 affirms the importance of the mind “For as he thinks…, so is he…” By observation, the top 6 things that occupies our mind are 1. Career, work or business 2. Family 3. Opposite sex 4. School 5. Past 6. Dreams, future plans.

God wants to be part of the top things that we have in mind. In fact, God wants us to think about Him when we think of these things. God wants to be part of our career, our family, when looking for our life partner, our school work, our dealings with the past, and our dreams and the future.

To love God with all our strength means that God wants us to spend our energy on things that will benefit people and expand the ministry of the church. Let us not waste our energy on things that are detrimental to life, and on things that hinder people in achieving a meaningful life.

May we love God with all our being!

Rev. Francis Neil G. Jalando-on
Acting Director
Office of Communications
Central Philippine University
#SeedsOfFaith
#BinhiSangPagtuo
February 6, 2017