And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. Luke 10:27

When the Lord speaks of knocking on the door, and wanting to be invited in so he can have supper with us, he speaks of his desire to be welcomed into our open hearts. But in using that figure of speech of coming to dinner, we are handed a useful cue to ask the question, were the Lord to come to dinner at my place, would he have my full attention or would I be busy… perhaps on my phone?

The Lord demands our full attention: all of thy heart, and all of thy soul, and all of thy strength, and all thy mind. For the Lord, nothing short of all of you will do. 

It is this same principle that you find for instance in the declaration, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.” (Rev 3:15-16)

Now the Lord is clearly demanding a lot here. It is tough enough to love him with all of our hearts, but to then ask that we love him with all of our intellect for instance.

The thing is, the idea has somehow become entrenched that once you accept Jesus into your heart, you have to eject your brain from your head. Ideas like “religion is a matter of the heart” which have no theological basis to stand upon have allowed the wrong-headed notion that we only relate to God by heart. Not true. God wants us to come to him with all of who we are.

To partition ourselves into the sacred, and the secular not only creates an artificial conflict, but also makes it impossible to fully realize our potential in God. 

In reality, our love and service only becomes acceptable to God, when we offer our entire selves (not some parts) as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1). It is when such an offering of ourselves is made that it becomes possible for our minds to be renewed, and transformed by God to serve him in an acceptable way.

Dear Lord, help me to hold back no part of myself from you. Help me to consciously serve you with all of me.

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