Love God

First command, whole self - heart, mind, strength, not a corner of Sunday morning.

Key Concept

• Whole-person devotion beats a Sunday-only corner.

And He said to him, “ 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”Matthew 22:37-40 NASB1995

• Under Free Grace, this is the first call on a life already saved by faith - love flowing from grace received, not love offered as payment for eternal life.

Level 1 - Recognize

Love God is the first command - devote heart, soul, mind, and strength to God, not a Sunday-only corner of life.

Level 2 - Explain

Like loving your family all week, not only at dinner, whole-person devotion means daily choices, not one worship hour.

Level 3 - Use

Audit where your time and attention actually go - if God gets one hour and everything else gets the week, devotion is partitioned.

Level 4 - Connect

Under Free Grace, this is the first call on a life already saved by faith - love flowing from grace received, not payment for eternal life.

Level 5 - Create

Extend whole-person devotion into calendar and attention - Heart Righteousness and Priorities Before the Inbox are the practical test.

Examples

• Match day adrenaline is not the same as opening my Bible on Thursday - glad whole-person love means I feed at least one faculty today.
• Sunday worship felt high but I had not opened my Bible since last week - loving God means more than one hour in a pew.

Note Relationships