S5P4 – Loving God with whole strength

Mark 12:30

“and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul [life], and with all your mind [thought, understanding], and with all your strength.”

Our strength is our might and power; it is our ability. The paradox is that while this commandment requires that we love God with all our strength, it is from God that we derive the very strength to do so. In our own strength, we are eternally deficient. It is God’s strength that permits us to keep all the elements of this commandment. God requires nothing more than that we commit to Him the power and ability that He himself has given us.

God’s mighty strength is what raised Jesus Christ from the grave and seated Him at the Father’s right hand (Eph. 1:19-20). This power is what God imparts to us to accomplish mighty feats in His name. He does not grant us a portion of His strength to perform work that glorifies us. Loving God with one’s whole strength is the commitment to use the power He gives us to advance His kingdom and His purposes. God is the great builder; we are merely the power tools.

This commandment should incite in us an excitement at being called to partner with God in the work that He seeks to carry out in the world. It is a great privilege that God should permit us to carry His power and exercise it in His name. The call is to exercise it responsibly, which is in complete submission to Him from whom our strength comes. Father, continue to build in us the humility to exercise our God-given strength for Your glory and the purposes of Your kingdom.