THE GREATEST COMMANDMENT, PART 4: WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH

As I write this, I am not feeling very strong physically. Allergies have reared up, and just trying to breathe is wearing me out. My physical maladies remind me that we are all flawed human beings…with limitations. Oh, how I hate to think I have limits.

I grew up in the era of “I am woman, hear me roar.” I was told I could be anything I wanted to be. Not true, by the way. I would never be able to be a basketball player, as I am terribly uncoordinated. Some days, putting one foot in front of the other is a challenge. But, I digress.

So, this idea of living within limits may be a bit foreign to some of us who were raised in western culture. Throughout Scripture, we see that God imposed limits upon people. Moses was called to be the deliverer of the nation of Israel. Yet, God limited his accessibility to the Promised Land. God limited Joshua as he made him wait days before showing his power and crumbling the walls of Jericho. Zechariah was not able to speak while his wife was expecting a baby. God put limits on Paul as he waited for years after his conversion to Christianity before he began his mission trips. Some of our limits are consequences of our own choices, but others are God’s way of getting our attention.

In each of these stories, and in countless others throughout history, we see the growth that happens as believers embrace the limits of life. What if God is using our limits to make our faith strong? What if our human limitations are actually a gift from God meant to cause us to live in utter dependence upon Him? What if, as Scripture says in 2 Corinthians 12, God’s power is made perfect in our weakness? What if…?

Too often, when I think about loving God with my strength, I think of all the ways I can love him under my own power, my own strength. And then, something happens that makes me realize how desperately I need him, even for the breath in my lungs. The longer I serve God, the more I understand that without him, I really have no strength. I truly am nothing without him. And I am continually amazed that he would be mindful of me with all my flaws and faults.

Loving God with your strength also indicates that we must love him with all we have, are, and possess. Let me unpack that a bit. Part of what makes us stable humans are our abilities, gifts, and talents. When I say abilities, I mean the things we naturally excel at doing. I do not have any natural athletic abilities. But I am great at spinning plates and keeping teams moving on track. As I love God, and my teams, I surrender all that to God, totally relying on him, and seeking his will in every situation and decision. Just the other day, a friend reminded me that my ability to spin plates and keep focus is a gift from God. I think we often forget that he gives us the gifts of ability, particularly so that we can use them for kingdom purposes. It is important for us to have that awareness in our lives.

Each of us has been given spiritual gifts to be used in the body of Christ. Paul says it this way:

There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
1 Corinthians 12:4-14 (NIV)

As I think about the gifts I have been given by the Holy Spirit, I must make an honest assessment to determine whether or not I am loving God with those parts of my strength. If you aren’t sure where and how you have been gifted by the Spirit, there are a number of online spiritual gifts assessments available to help you figure that out.

Loving God with my strength can also include my finances. Some of you might be thinking I am now going to meddlin’. That’s country for I’m gonna get in your business. Part of the stability we experience in life is financial. We work so we can have money and buy the necessities, and sometimes the things we desire. Am I, are you, loving God with your finances? Are we (you) giving him credit for providing you with all you need? Are we (you) living in a state of gratitude to the Holy One who gives so generously to us? And are we giving back to the work of the kingdom? I firmly believe the local church is God’s plan for evangelizing the world. We have foreign missions, and those are good and necessary. But, the local church is the place where we are to be strengthened, and the place we are to grow and mature in our faith. How are you loving God with your treasure?

One other place I think we need to be intentional to love God is with our time. We are each given 24 hours in a day. That’s 168 hours in a week. How do we love God with our time? This area of loving God can take many different forms. I think about the time we spend in church…time we spend in fellowship with other believers…time spent working and sharing his love in the place of our vocation. I do think, however, that the most important way we can love God with our time is by spending it with him. For much of my life, I was not very intentional with that. I would struggle to be consistent with a quiet time in his Word. Prayer was not necessarily a priority for me. And I was, perhaps, terrified of silence and solitude. But God…some of my favorite words…God is patient and kind. His kindness leads us to repentance. He continued to draw me to himself, patiently waiting until I had matured enough to see the necessity of spending quality time in his presence. Today, I can’t begin my day without time with God. Honestly, the people around me need me to spend time with God. He reminds me that he gives me the strength to love him. He reminds me that I am his, chosen and redeemed. He reminds me that he is God, and I am not. I don’t know about you, but I need those reminders on a daily basis.

As we choose to love God with our strength, let us remember that we can love him because he first loved us. Take some time this week to focus on how you can be more intentional to love God with your time, talents, gifts, abilities, and treasure. God wants all of us, not just a part of us. Will we surrender to him in love?

This post originally appeared at: The Greatest Commandment, Part 4: With All Your Strength — The Bonhoeffer Project