Love God & Love Your Neighbor - Matthew 22 Blog
Just spent some time reading in Matthew 22 during my Time Alone With God (TAWG) and there are just so many good nuggets of information in this chapter. However, in today’s blog I am going to narrow down all of that great information to one big and amazing nugget, which is “Love the Lord your God… the first and greatest commandment”. Let’s take a moment to look at the fullness of that section of scripture and then we will talk about the importance of aligning our everyday lives and decisions with that section of scripture.
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:36-40). I love this section of scripture for so many reasons. Jesus is stressing the importance of putting God first and foremost above all things and loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind (loving Him with all that is within you). Next in line is to love your neighbor as yourself. This goes with the theme that my parents raised me on, which is to put Jesus first, others second, and myself third.
Now, the question is, how can we apply this section of scripture to our lives? Well, I feel that Jesus could not have made it any more clear… to put God (Jesus) first, others second, and ourselves third. We need to make sure that we are loving God with all of our heart, soul, and mind. Next, we need to make sure that we are loving others and putting others needs ahead of our own needs. It’s when we begin to put ourselves ahead of God and others that our lives begin to fall apart, because we are stepping outside of Gods alignment and plan for our lives. So, when things in our lives seem to be getting kind of wacky, we need to ask ourselves if we are still putting Jesus first, others second, and ourselves third. For me personally, I have noticed that when things get rough/wacky in my life, I tend to want to take over and make/force things to happen, rather than press into God more and trust in Him. That is a great example of me putting myself first, rather than putting God first and trusting in Him and His perfect plan. When we allow things to get out of that ‘Jesus first, others second, and myself third’ alignment, we can expect that things will only get worse in our lives.
In conclusion, what areas of your life are currently out of alignment? What can you do to put things back in alignment and fully trust God in those areas? I encourage you to take steps today to get those areas of your life back in order… don’t drag your feet and just think about doing it, but actually begin taking those bold steps today. The good news is that you don’t have to do it alone, as you can dive into prayer right now and ask Jesus to help you to get things back in order. YOU’VE GOT THIS!!! I AM SO PROUD OF YOU!!! Thank you so much for reading today’s blog! Be sure to come back next Wednesday, 7/17/19 to catch my TAWG Blog on Matthew 23.
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