The freedom to choose

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.

The first part of this verse, “Love the lord your God with all your heart” gives us the first step in how to love God. Our heart is our feelings, which means that our relationship must be entered into emotionally. Love is first and foremost emotion based. While we feel love emotionally, the decision to follow through with it comes from our soul, not our heart.

As described in the book, “your soul is your God given personality”. All humans have the same basic emotions, but we decide how to handle them in our own ways. Each one of us has a different personality, which means that no two people will handle a situation in exactly the same way, and God didn’t make us the same as anyone else.

Have you ever wondered why no where in the Bible does it say, “you must go to church every Sunday to worship me”? God also didn’t make us to worship in the same way. Some worship in church, while someone else worships by working in a soup kitchen. I suppose the same would be true of rest. Many churches say, you must not do any work on the Sabbath day, but who are they to determine what you consider rest. How we worship and rest is part of our relationship with God, and is up to us, not the church.

Another important part of our soul is our talent. God gave us our talent to serve him and others; it shouldn’t be hidden. God speaks to our heart what he wants, and if we are listening, we make the decision to do his will without hesitation. This is what is meant by “all your soul.” When God asks you to do something, you decide to do it automatically, not because you have to, but because you want to. This is what love is all about, doing by choice, not force.

God calls us to certain tasks of service to him, and to others, but he also gave us the freedom to choose; to choose a relationship with him, to choose to do his will, and to choose the needs of God and man over ourselves.

Challenge: Listen to what God is telling your heart, and decide to do his will. The choice is yours.

Enjoy,
Allen