He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command.     Matthew 22:37-38 HCSB

This Scripture passage is Jesus’ response to the Pharisees. They were trying to trick Him into saying one commandment was more important than the other.

But today I’m not talking about the Ten Commandments or how cleverly Jesus summed them all up in a few verses. I am talking about what He said the most important commandment was. He said that we are to love the Lord with all our heart, all our soul and all our mind. This implies wholehearted devotion, not half-hearted commitment.

Sadly, there are going to be a lot of religious people in hell. I say this because we’ve got to understand that it’s not religion that gets us into heaven. It’s our relationship with our Lord and Savior. Many people go through the motions. They make that obligatory trip to church to give God an hour on Sunday morning thinking they are doing Him a big favor. When Sunday morning is over, they consider themselves good to go for another week. And often live like the devil when they are not in church, just sayin’.

If you’re considering marriage you wouldn’t want to marry someone who was obviously going through the motions of a relationship would you? They may take you to nice dinners, they may buy you expensive gifts, but if they don’t love you with all their heart, all the money they spend doesn’t mean anything. If your prospective spouse professed a half-hearted love, would it be enough?

Jesus loved us enough to die for us, are you willing to die to your old sinful ways and live for Him? Are you willing to surrender your life to Him?

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want shallow, superficial relationships and neither does God. Typically, when we go through the motions, we are simply hoping to gain something for ourselves. Maybe we want to gain favor with someone or maybe we are simply trying to make ourselves feel better.

If you are simply going through the motions, you are only deceiving yourself. And at some point, you will realize you are only hurting yourself. I’ve been their done that and got the t-shirt.

Many of us, me included, get saved and we are on fire for Jesus. But before long the troubles and struggles of everyday life put that fire out and we begin going through the motions. We go from wholeheartedly loving Him and serving Him to half-hearted church attendance. If that has happened to you, you can rededicate your life to Him.

When we love someone with all our heart, we put their needs above our needs, we want to help them and serve them and be there for them. It’s the same when we love the Lord with all our heart. We put Him first in our lives. He takes priority. We don’t go to church because it is expected of us. We go because we want to go. We go because we want to enter into His house and give him thanks and praise. We are like sponges who want to soak up His word and learn all it has to teach us.

I spent many years going through the motions. I spent a great deal of time being a Sunday morning Christian. And I can tell you, it didn’t work out so well. I can also tell you, however, that wholehearted devotion to Him has been a wonderful thing. It has brought peace and joy to my life even when my circumstances aren’t so great.

It has helped me to walk through the fire and the flood, knowing He is there with me. It has helped me face difficult times with faith instead of fear.

If you are going through the motions, stop. Search your heart. Seek Him with all your heart and you will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13).

Love the Lord, like you want to be loved, wholeheartedly.

Have a great day!