Opening Prayer:
God of mercy, forgive us for losing our focus on your presence in our lives. We get so busy, have so much to do, yet apart from you we can do nothing of any importance or value. Free us to joyfully drink from your Holy Spirit's presence within us when we wake, when we work, when we play and rest! Speak, we are listening!
Deuteronomy 6: 4-25:
Comments:
It's easy to love God on Sunday morning in a worship service or on a mission trip to somewhere we don't normally go or in a bible study group. It's not so easy to love God in the daily tasks of eating, cleaning, working, parenting, communicating with our spouses, and paying bills. Yet, we are given God's very presence, God's Holy Spirit, to live within us every moment of every day to enable us to love God fully in heart, mind, body, and soul no matter where we are or what we are doing! The way of life Jesus invites us to is one of loving God with our heart (will/emotion), mind (thoughts), soul (holds our hearts/minds/and bodies together as whole persons), and strength (body) and loving our neighbors as though they are part of our own selves! There is no "time off" from life with God! Nor do we want there to be when we know that a life filled to overflowing with love is the best life we can have.
We have been taught that our lives are broken down into pieces that are unrelated. We have our work selves, our parenting selves, our spousal selves, our church selves, and, where most of the trouble lies, our "private selves." We struggle to hold them all together because we are often taught to separate them from one another. This is the way to disintegration. When Jesus comes to save us, he comes to make us whole in ourselves, with God, and with everyone and everything else.
That's why the Scripture for today has always been a central Scripture to God's people and to Jesus! He said that if we could love God with our whole selves, every minute, we would be fulfilling every commandment in the Bible. That's why Deuteronomy tells us to write the words reminding us to love God with our whole selves on our doorposts, talk with our families about them, and attach them on our bodies! Loving God is what holds our lives together and gives us joy.
Life Question:
How does it look to love God when I'm at work, at home, and when I'm alone?
Closing Prayer:
Fill us with your love, God of grace! Give us the power of your Holy Spirit to love you each moment with every cell in our bodies, every thought in our minds, and every ounce of our will so that we may know a life of peace and love! In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
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