Love God With All Your Soul
/Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength…Love your neighbor as yourself. Mark 12:30-31
Before we can talk about loving God with all your soul, it may be helpful to go back to where it all began in Genesis 2:7 where we read in the KJV, And the LORD God formed man [of] the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
The Old Testament Hebrew word for soul is nephesh which means soul, self, life, creature, person, appetite, mind, living being, desire, emotion, passion. So God breathed into His creation the spirit of life, the core of our very being.
When we look at the New Testament Greek word for soul found in Mark 12:30, we find it is the word psychē which means the seat of the feelings, desires, affections, aversions. Therefore, it is with the core of our very being that we love God. Perhaps we could also refer to our soul as our "consciousness", the desires and appetites of the flesh and mind.
What does that look like for you and me as we live our lives to glorify God?
- Reading and meditating on God's Word
- Communicating through prayer
- Yielding everything to the Spirit so you exhibit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control
- Guarding your heart by censoring what comes out of your mouth, what you watch on TV or see on the Internet, and places you go for entertainment and recreation
- Connecting with a local Church Body and involvement through serving
