Saturday, July 29, 2006
Deuteronomy 6:5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
100% DEVOTION
Perhaps you've seen cute and not so cute sayings on bumper stickers, t-shirts and posters which adorn our cars, bodies and walls. One that sticks out in my mind is "What part of NO don't you understand?" To borrow that line of thinking, I would suggest changing one word to reflect the thought of our passage for today. I submit to you that it should read "What part of ALL don't you understand."
The Lord expects, no, demands that we love Him with ALL our heart, ALL our soul, and ALL our strength. What part of ALL don't you understand? This is 100 % devotion to the Lord your God. Anything less just doesn't get the job done.
Let's stay with percentages for just a moment. If we consider a week of your life which consists of 168 hours, and you spend 40 hours of that week working your job (I know, 40 hours is low, but just work with me here). That's about 23% devoted to your job. Assuming you spend seven hours sleeping each night that comes to 29% sleeping. So far that's over half of your week just working and sleeping. How much is left for devotion to God? Is the one hour per week you spend in the pew in church (two with Bible Class) mean that you are 100% devoted to the Lord? Not even close! If that's it you are only .005 percent devoted to the Lord. A far cry from loving the Lord with ALL your heart, soul, and strength.
Thankfully you have Jesus Christ giving you His 100% devotion to God. Christ loved the Father with ALL His heart. Christ loved the Father with ALL His soul. Christ loved the Father with ALL His strength.
And He loves you so much that He gracefully gives you ALL the credit in the eyes of His Father.
To Him be ALL the glory!
