How Do You Love God With All Your Heart ...

 You start out by acknowledging God in all your ways (Prov. 3:5-6) and submitting to His will. It isn’t based in emotion, though they do result. God’s love is shed abroad by the Holy Spirit into our hearts by a work of grace (Rom. 5:5). Remember, the proper divine order is “fact, faith, feeling.” You learn to trust God by acknowledging Him in all your ways and taking baby steps of being faithful first in small things and letting God trust you with more. We progress from "faith to faith." (Rom. 1:17).  We all take a leap of faith in salvation and must go wherever God leads like Abraham went out not knowing where he was going.

 Now we all live in a doubt-certitude continuum and our faith must grow from faith to faith (Rom. 1:17). We practice our faith and obey (they go together hand in hand) God makes it grow. It isn’t how much faith we have as much as how big our God is and if we are obedient to the faith. Faith isn’t as much about believing despite the evidence or how big your faith is, but how much you obey--they go hand in hand (Heb. 3:18–19). It isn't how big your faith is, but how well you obey. Faith is not believing despite the evidence or how convinced you are, but obeying in spite of the consequences. 

What believing with all your heart, mind, and soul means is that it is with all we have, our whole being withholding nothing and not having some area of our lives that isn't surrendered to His will.  We prove it by our lives and testimony: "All that counts is faith expressing itself through love." (Gal. 5:6).  This doesn't happen overnight. The more we love our neighbor is indicative of our love for God. We commence by loving them and no one who doesn't love his brother can claim to love God.  Thus, the command to love our neighbor as ourselves, even becoming good Samaritans, thinking of their affairs, not just our own and meeting them in their time of need and using whatever resources, gifts, talents, opportunities, time, blessings, or relationships you have to their benefit.   

Note that  to love God with all our heart, soul, and spirit means with all we are and with all our being--all the bases are covered! 

Are You Living A Secret Life?

 If you are a believer in Christ, you live a secret life, a privatized life in addition to the one most people see; i.e., your relationship with Christ.  Now I am not saying we should not show our faith (we should not broadcast it but let God open the door to witness for Him) for we are to prove our faith by our works; the faith you have is the faith you show!  We are not to wear our religion on our sleeves and advertise how pious or religious we are which may really be religiosity, not spirituality. 

We must also be Daniels in the sense of not being ashamed to take a stand for Christ and be countercultural or even to do civil disobedience and defy the laws of the land if they contradict the Bible. We are not to practice our spiritual life that the public may see but do do good works that men may see them and glorify our Father in heaven. We are to complete the good works God has ordained for us as His masterpiece. (Eph. 2:10).  

We have died! our new life is hidden with Christ.  That means that the only fulfillment, meaning, purpose, dignity we will find must be in Christ and in His will to His glory. Living selfishly will not cut it with God!  We must love our neighbor as ourselves which means that we will come to their aid in times of need and not just be  concerned with only our personal affairs. But God gives us an agape love for others by shedding it abroad in our hearts and we prove our faith and love for God by loving one another. 

We can only find God's will if we are willing to do it! We must seek His will and be willing to do whatever He puts in our way.  This is also how we find our spiritual gift: by experimenting and debuting for whatever opportunities God gives us. God certainly has a plan for our lives and few there be that find it before their senior years. Wisdom does grow with age and the recognition of the brevity of our lives. 

The reason David was called a man after God's own heart was that he was willing to do all God's will  (Acts 13:22). That doesn't mean he never sinned but found God's will for his life and fulfilled it. Even Paul said that his "only aim was to complete [his] mission." (Acts 20:24). We must be careful to fulfill the calling we get from God (Col. 4:17) that we receive a "full reward." 

Remember, only God sees our heart and secret motives and judges the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Heb. 4:12; 1 Chron. 28:9). All of us are like a moon with a dark side only God sees! Yes, God sees our shortcomings too but doesn't count them against us (Psalm 32:2; 2 Cor. 5:19). God loves and accepts us with all our warts, flaws, and weaknesses. 

We must transition from doctrine to application: from orthodoxy to orthopraxy or from teaching to ethics. We must practice our faith and grow thereby in it by doing good works. We must turn our creeds into deeds!  the whole purpose of salvation is a changed life!  Remember the formula of the Reformers: "We are saved by faith alone not by a faith that is alone!" We are not saved by works, but not without them either; faith without works is dead and cannot save. We prove and authenticate our faith by our deeds, for we are known by our fruits.  Our faith must therefore be validated by our good works to prove it is saving, sincere, and genuine faith; for God doesn't require  perfect faith, only sincere faith (1 Tim. 1:5: 2 Tim. 1:5). 

In sum, we must become heavenly minded and think about those things that are spiritual, setting our minds on that which is above, not on earth for our citizenship is in heaven and we are mere pilgrims passing through, not preoccupied with the temporal.  To keep our eyes on Jesus (Heb. 3:1; 12:2). Soli Deo Gloria!