Deuteronomy 6:5
5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
God did not say, “Love the Lord with all of your time, your energy, and your resources.” This is what the world says, “God wants your heart, your soul, your strength.”
What’s the difference? It’s the cart before the horse theory.
Let’s start with the heart. Why the heart? Because it is where the core desires lie and are formed. It’s where the trajectory of your thoughts, actions, and deeds originate. It’s where God planted Himself when He says, “I am in you.”
The heart knows the person’s deepest needs – the ones that get buried under the thoughts their minds conjure up. The needs of the heart are never gone, they are just forgotten and need to be awakened. The heart is what aligns itself with God. Besides its natural functions, like pumping blood through to the rest of the body, the heart is where love resides. Love needs to be received and shared; it’s the fuel that keeps the organ pumping. As love begins to fade away, the pump eventually stops running and the body dies.
God knew that by asking us to love Him whole-heartedly, it would force us to fight through all the cobwebs of negative thoughts that have latched themselves on our hearts. These webs create a thick barrier that smothers it, not letting the person feel love or give it in return. God knew that the only thing that cures the heart is to love again.
By asking us to love Him whole-heartedly, our hearts would have to be healed first, refueled and ready to share again. Love ignites the ultimate weapon to flourish and experience pure joy in this world we live in. This creates a chain reaction and the world starts to come together, bringing a piece of heaven to earth.
Then there’s the soul. The soul manifests the condition of one’s heart. It shows us a glimpse of its state. Ask someone, “How is your soul?” and the answer will give you a looking glass into the condition of their heart. A broken heart doesn’t mean a broken soul though — the souls serve as a conduit to the mind and the physical body.
The soul is where God says the spiritual battle is played out, where it uses its three weapons: the heart, the mind, and the person’s strength to fend off evil. They all direct and react to determine the outcome of the battle.
Strength. This is the consolidation of the body’s shell and inner parts. It’s the physical expression of the condition of the heart together with the soul.
Strength is the ultimate extension of the manifestation of God. A smile generated by a pure heart and peaceful soul can render the most fortified city helpless. Using our hands and feet, we can penetrate the thickest walls of our fellow men’s being.
The theory of compound interest is an example of the power of the body in alignment with the soul, which is fed by the heart. The more you deposit love, the more it compounds itself, multiplying exponentially.
A world can be changed when all three — heart, soul, and strength — are aligned. Time, energy, and resources will automatically follow as an expression of our unity with God.
Colossians 3:23-24
23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, 24 since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Just a Thought…
