Love God with All Your Soul - Pt 2

“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) 

Today we will continue this series of articles on the
greatest commandment by looking at how we can love God with all our soul. 

The scripture tells us we are not only to love God with
all our heart, but also with all our soul (synonymous with “spirit”).  How do you love God with all your soul?  This is a huge question.  We need to know the answer to this because it
is one of the four things Jesus said we need to do to love God completely.  In our devotion to God, our soul is
responsible for our highest spiritual exercises; it is the seat of our
emotional activity.  We love the Lord
with all our soul by living a life of faithfulness to all that the Lord has
required of us. 

While loving the Lord with all our heart has to do with
affection, loving the Lord with all our soul has to do with devotion.  Christ’s obedience was nowhere more tested than
in the garden of Gethsemane, where His soul was “…overwhelmed with sorrow to
the point of death.” (Matthew 26:38b)
The soul expresses the sorrow and joy that inevitably accompany the life
of faith. (See Psalm 42; 32:2)  

Here are three main ways to love God with all our soul:

1. Love the Lord with all your soul by making
godly choices.

Our lives are the sum of the choices we make.  Plain and simple.  Our choices show what we are committed to, and
they reflect our core values, defining us and displaying our lifestyle before
the world.

We do what we value.  If we treasure our relationship with the Lord,
our choices will simply mirror the treasure.  Choices flow from what we treasure most.  Ask yourself, how do I spend my money? What do I do with my time?  What kinds of things do I read?  What programs do I watch?  What do I do for entertainment?  Where do I go for relaxation?  What things give comfort in difficult times? What kind of friends do I have?

All of these result in choices that demonstrate whether
we love God with all our soul.

2. Love the Lord
with all your soul by pursuing obedience to His Word.

“If you love me, you will obey what I command.” (John
14:15)

Love must be demonstrated.  When we keep His commandments, when we live by
every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God (See Matthew 4:4), we are physically
expressing our love for the Lord.

I’ve been happily married for over 28 years.  During that time, I have made decisions based
on love that I did not feel like making, but I did it anyways.  I am obedient to the covenant that I made over
28 years ago to love unconditionally whether I feel like it or not.

That’s why this second part of the First Commandment is
vital.  Sometimes we are not going to
feel like loving God, but we do it out of love for God, nonetheless.  In the Kingdom, obedience usually comes first
and feelings second.

3. Love the Lord with all your soul by pursuing
a life of humility in attitudes and speech.

Embracing humility is the stage where we can express our
love to the Lord.  Jesus taught us how to
love from a place of meekness. (See Matthew 5:5)  Meekness is power and privilege under
control. It speaks of restraint in the use of power except to promote love.

“Meekness” is not “weakness”; it is
strength submitted to the control of God and His will.” –Shawn Thomas

This meekness is expressed most willingly in our attitude
and speech.  What we say and how we say
it enhances or quenches our ability to love the Lord by the power of the
Spirit.  Wrong speech will ultimately
affect our spiritual lives and work against our love for the Lord.

“For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth
speaks.” (Matthew 12:34)

When Jesus is our Great Treasure, our affections
are captured.  This is how we love God
with all of our heart.  When our
affections are captured, then choices become god-centered, and a lifestyle of
humility and godliness is born.  This is
loving God with all your soul.

To “love God with all my soul” is to love God with
a strong desire, true emotion and powerful enthusiasm.

So my soul
pants for you, O God. My

soul thirsts for
God, for the living God.

When can I go
and meet with God?

(Psalm 42:1-2)

Can God change
your life?

God has made it
possible for you to know Him, and experience an amazing
change in your own life.

Discover how you
can find peace with God.