Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
- Mark 12:30
Have you ever been in love?
Before I met Sam, I thought I knew what love felt like. But (and sorry if this is corny), Sam was the first person I met who I fell deeper in love with the more and more I got to know him. With everyone else, the shine on our relationship faded as time went on. But with Sam, the past thirteen years of marriage have only made my feelings for him stronger. I avoid doing things I know will hurt him, and I spend a lot of time thinking of ways I can make him happy or make his life easier. I am happiest when we are together, and I miss him immensely when we are apart.
Worship is a lot like being in love.
The first thing to come to mind when I hear “worship” is like the image above: being gathered together, singing along as a band sings praise and worship songs. It’s easy to forget that worship is more than just singing, or music, or raising our hands to the heavens.
Worship is intrinsically tied to the greatest commandment. Loving with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength is the definition of worship, isn’t it? But what does that look like in real life?
Let’s break today’s verse down, shall we?
Heart:
Contrary to current opinion, ancient cultures thought that the heart was the seat of intellect - emotions, thoughts, intelligence. This is where your deepest beliefs, motivations, intentions, sit.
Soul:
The very core of what makes us human, the part of us that will remain even after our bodies and flesh are gone.
Mind:
Higher thinking: understanding, feeling, desiring…the mind is the place where knowledge is collated and connected to expand understanding.
Strength:
Force, power, ability. Our will and our action.
All in all, it seems clear that what God wants - and what He deserves - is for our everything to be focused on Him. Our thoughts, our emotions, our actions, our very existence…this is a lot more than just once-a-week meetings to sing songs and listen to someone speaking for an hour.
No, this sounds more like being in love…with someone who truly deserves it.
I encourage you to get to know God more. I guarantee that the more you get to know Him, the more time you spend with Him, the more in love with Him you will be and the easier true worship will become.
