The Greatest Commandment
Mark 12:30, says “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” Last week I had an epiphany regarding this greatest commandment. I was participating in my weekly bible study and in a video, we were watching, the speaker talked about loving the Lord with all your mind. I have spent more time thinking about loving the Lord with my heart or my soul, but I hadn’t really focused on loving the Lord with all my mind.
The video speaker Francis Collins, a wonderful Christian and scientist, served as the Science Advisor to the President in 2022 and has spent his adult life in loving the Lord with his mind. He believes in science and has spent much of his time understanding DNA and genes. He is part of a number of scientists who believe in God and the creation as well as in science, and believe as we continue to learn, it will only support our faith and belief in there is a God. Francis’ dedication to science and God helps me realize I should spend time in knowing and loving the Lord with my mind too.
Focusing on that part of the commandment to love the Lord with your mind, how can we do our best to obey this commandment? The obvious answer is to read and study the bible. Be a part of a weekly bible study group or if you are stuck at home, join one of the study groups that are really good on the internet. There are articles that suggest various ways to study the Bible. Some tips include begin with prayer, you don’t have to start at the beginning, actually start with the four gospels as I think they are more easily understood, choose a topic you are interested in, learn about a character you are interested in or finally, listen to the bible online.
Loving God with my mind means renewing my mind daily so that I think more of his thoughts instead of my own. We know his thoughts by reading the Word/Bible and other spiritual books daily and communicating regularly through prayer.
Proverbs 4:23 says, “Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts” (GNT). Your thoughts have tremendous ability to shape your life for good or for bad. For example, you might have been told, “You’re worthless. You don’t matter.” And you might have accepted that thought, even though it was wrong. Now, years later, it’s still affecting your life. That’s why it’s important to choose which thoughts we allow to affect our lives.
When we don’t control the way we direct our thoughts, we experience an enormous amount of stress in our life. But a managed mind leads to strength, security, and serenity, and I think inner peace.
May we all do a better job this year of obeying the commandment of loving the Lord with our mind, as well as heart and soul.