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In Mark’s account of the Greatest Command, he highlights the depth of love we should have for God.
“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)
What does it mean to love God will heart, soul, mind, and strength?
I interpret that to mean that I should love Him with everything I feel (heart), who I am (soul), what I think (mind), and what I do (strength).
But can I love Him that completely if I don’t give Him my time?
If I add the phrase, “Love the Lord your God with all your time,” I am brought to a whole new level of application for what it means to truly and deeply love God.
This week, as many are making plans for the New Year, and as we have been recently reminded of one of God’s ultimate demonstrations of love by sending His Son to earth—I am going to reflect on what it means to love the Lord my God with all my time. That seems like a greater sacrifice of love than heart, soul, mind, and strength.
How can you love God with all your time this week and into next year?
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Eighteen times in the book of Job, the word hope is mentioned.
Job cries out for hope.
“What strength do I have, that I should still hope? What prospects, that I should be patient? (Job 6:11)
And in the words of his friends, Bildad, and Zophar,
Hope is for those who remember God.
Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless. (Job 8:13)
And there is security in hope.
You will be secure, because there is hope; you will look about you and take your rest in safety. (Job 11:18)
However, their words of hope are intermixed with accusations and their own interpretation of why Job is suffering.
In chapter 42, God chastises these friends, but does not mention Job’s young friend Elihu. This is likely because he spoke up in God’s defense.
It is Elihu’s mention of God’s love that begins to change Job’s perspective and the conversation turns toward hope (Job 37:13).
So, while we, like Job, long for hope in the midst of suffering, hope is unattainable without a focus on God’s love and our trust that He is in control.
God’s love is the ultimate source of hope.