Everyone is reevaluating their priorities. With all the upheaval in society, we have to ask, “What matters most?”
For us, Jesus Christ is the paramount priority. Our first desire is to know and be known by him. “To live is Christ . . .” Paul says (Phil. 1:21). In a time of resignation and reluctance, we enter a season of Recommitment in November.
Invocation
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Jesus, you said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). I know, and you know better, that my love for you has faltered. My heart and soul are bent toward self. My mind is easily distracted and my strength fails. But I know you are gracious. Forgive me. Show me loving kindness. Reform my heart and soul, mind and strength, that I may be fully devoted to you. Amen.
Word: Mark 12:40
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
Meditation
In the same chapter as the poor widow, earlier in Mark 12, a religious scribe asked Jesus a question. “What commandment is the most important?” Jesus replied with what we now call The Great Commandment. Mark 12:30: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
Look through the Bible. Only God gets “heart, soul, mind, and strength.” The whole of you. Nowhere in the Bible are these four core things given to anyone else. Not even for a spouse or a child are we commanded to give the fulness of heart, soul, mind, and strength. And certainly not a hobby, a career, a dream, or a life goal. Only in reference to God is there a call for all and everything.
There is a saying attributed to the church fathers that says, “A Christians’ heart, hands, and tongue must agree.” There is a holistic nature to the Christian life. Our faith is not merely a matter of the soul. It encompasses the whole of who we are. Does our confession of Jesus match with the hours of our day? Does the praise we sing with our lips on Sunday continue with our hands and feet on Monday?
We live in a world of half-hearted commitments. Words are rescinded. Promises are broken. Thanks be to God that he never reverses course. He remains faithful even when we are faithless.
Prayer: God have mercy on my lukewarm commitment to you. So inspire me by your grace that I may give you all – heart and soul, mind and strength. Amen.
Prayer
Lord, make me bold to run the way of your commandments. Help me to stand still before your presence. So fill me with your presence and power that I may carry it into the world. Amen.
Benediction
The Lord preserve us from all evil; the Lord preserve our souls. The Lord preserve our going out and our coming in, from this time forth, and even forevermore. Amen. (Ps. 121:7-8)